


Taming the Demon

by Almiloveskiro



Category: Eyeshield 21
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, Canon Compliant, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Everybody gets mentioned eventually, I did zero research into dissociative identity disorder, Inaccurate Portrayal of DID, Inaccurate Portrayal of Mental Illness, It's rated Underage because they're teenagers, Juumonji didn't sign up for this, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-03-23 17:55:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 38
Words: 60,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13793022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Almiloveskiro/pseuds/Almiloveskiro
Summary: Everybody thinks that Sena doesn't fight back because he can't. That's wrong. It's because he doesn't feel like it. Something Hiruma comes to understand quite... intimately.





	1. The Boy with The Golden Legs

The first time Hiruma Yoichi saw Kobayakawa Sena, he decided the shrimp was nothing special.  Still, he hauled the fucking fat ass out to toss him in the air, steal his number, and acquire his address because at this stage of the game Hiruma couldn’t afford to be picky. 

The second time, Hiruma watched a pathetic little worm of a person transform into what he _knew_ was going to become his ace running back.  From quivering to resolved, terrified to determined.

Victim to Take-No-Prisoners-style kick ass.

Hiruma decided as he watched, started plotting how the next few days were going to unfold.  The kid would join team, become the secret ace player Eyeshield 21, and Hiruma would steadily chip away at the pathetic persona his prize had encased himself in. 

That evening, after roping and shooting and bullying the kid, Hiruma thought back.  Thought back to the transformation he had seen.  He didn’t replay the running this time, but the shorty’s face.  The moment the brat had stopped looking tearful and terrified and confused, the moment the determination and resolve took charge, the moment his stance was set and just before he took that first step, Hiruma saw something else in his eyes.  Something he didn’t really take notice of after the shrimp started moving.  Something he had forgot about during the following activities.  Something he almost didn’t recognize because the last time he saw it was in the eyes of _that fucking dreads_ whom Hiruma doesn’t like to think about.  Something he should’ve found shocking but didn’t.  Something…

Maniacal.

Rationally speaking, it made sense.  The brat looks like the type to have endured physical and emotional torment most of his life.  Kids like that came out of high school in one of three ways: A, in handcuffs after perpetrating a school shooting. B, covered in bruises, blood, and shit from fighting back. Or C, on a gurney, under a white sheet, having killed themselves.  Hiruma figured the shorty to fit into the third category at first, but now he wasn’t so sure.  That look definitely said school shooter, but then why?

Why run from danger when one glimpse of that inner demon could send it fleeing back into its hidey holes?


	2. The 5 Second Wall and We Need Eleven

The kid’s first practice wasn’t exactly a memorable affair.  Hiruma could tell on sight that Sena (the fat ass called him such) had regressed back into wimp mode.  The blond had expected such and therefore made the most of it, tying the brat up and dragging him around like a rag doll.  The quarterback made a big show of talking to Kurita, yelling about broken equipment, and generally ignoring the small boy.  In reality, he was paying very close attention to even the smallest of twitches in the boy’s muscles, trying to catch a glimpse of that dark, ugly creature behind the shorty’s too-big eyes. 

Nothing. 

Running itself wasn’t the key ( _and what the fuck was with that first forty?  Fucking shrimp let up after three fucking steps_ ), and setting Cerberus on him only made the kid cry like a bitch ( _but that 4.2 seconds was worth every little whine_ ).  What was it, what was it?  Hiruma needed to be able to control the demon, direct it, channel it, but he couldn’t do that if he couldn’t tap into it, didn’t know the source.  It was like Cerberus and food: lack incentive, lack obedie-

Wait a minute. Cerberus. 

The mutt would chase Sena for the dog biscuit down the back of his shirt.  That was the plan.  That was how it started. 

But when Cerberus went in for the kill, he didn’t go for the brat’s shirt.  The dog went straight for his _head._  

When in packs, male dogs would fight over who got to be the ‘alpha’.  Usually they were fights to the death, but occasionally, the loser would be strong enough or good enough to keep on as a ‘beta’ and be spared after an appropriate show of dominance from the ‘alpha’. 

Cerberus wasn’t chasing food.  He was showing Sena who was Top Dog around here.  Meaning the mutt had seen or sensed the thing inside of Sena and deemed it a threat. 

_Think Hiruma, think! What are you missing? What happened when you looked down to check the stopwatch? In that one instant what changed?_

The direction of the kid, that’s what. 

When Hiruma looked up again, Cerberus had caught the shrimp and was gnawing on his skull.  But Hiruma could see the brat’s face, because the brat had changed direction.  Most would attribute this to the kid’s running style, the way he moved, but that wasn’t right.  When choosing the flight option between fight and flight, a person automatically runs away in the opposite direction from the danger, _in a straight line_.  If the brat was turning while running, it means he wasn’t fleeing.

He turned, intending to fight back. 

There. 

Confrontation, probably stemming from a deep seated rage at being the victim, was the key the demon’s cage. 

This could be both good and bad for Hiruma.  Good because when the brat gets tackled during games, he’s more likely to get his scrawny ass up and run again than lay there and whimper.  But it could be bad because this kind of rage is very tricky to handle.  Regular, run-of-the-mill anger could be incited and then quelled in a matter of words and gestures, but this was old hate.  The kind of hate that has been with you so long, it’s engrained into your soul and you don’t remember what being without it is like; the kind of hate that can go from dead to inferno in less than a second, in any given situation; the kind of hate won’t retreat until it’s been paid in blood. 

Hiruma was not afraid of a mere child, but he knew better than to be careless with the boy’s handling.  It may frighten the shorty excessively, but the quarterback would make it a point to keep the kid informed about most of his plans, at least the basics, for a while.  Doing such would earn the kid’s trust and convince him that they were on the same side.  When the brat got used to the way Hiruma did things, the blond would begin keeping his plots to himself again. 

But that was for later.  Right now, the Devil Bats needed support players. 

Xx121xX

Fuck, the pipsqueak whined a lot.  Hiruma wondered if he’d ever get used to that nasally sound grating on his ears ( _and why was he so hung up on being the manager? He’d never been on a sports team so he wouldn’t know how to do the job properly anyway_ ).  Tch.  Whatever.  Hiruma planned to round up more than eight recruits anyway, he supposed he could throw his new pet project a bone.  If the kid didn’t want to run his first game, that was fine.  He would stay a secret and take the extra time to _learn the fucking rules of the sport._                       

He next saw the kid outside the basketball team clubroom.  Shitty little brat had come racing up halls seeming quite hyped up about his new task, only to stop short in front of the door.  He stood there and fidgeted for probably a full minute before finally knocking on the door and stuttering out some pathetic excuse for a request.  It was not surprising at all when he was turned down.  Hiruma was relatively pleased that the kid wasn’t completely discouraged and ran off to find others.  After the fat ass left, the Devil of Deimon went to work. 

Back at the clubhouse, the quarterback was putting up chips to mark how many players he had recruited ( _the shrimp and the fat ass had gotten exactly zero between the two of them!  Useless bastards_ ) when he remembered he had ran out of gum earlier that day, and damn if he couldn’t feel a craving coming on.  So he left without as much as a word to the fat ass who was wailing about the lack of love for his favourite sport.  He wondered what happened to the chibi, if he was still running around recruiting or if he got hooked into running errands again. 

Running errands apparently, he saw the kid delivering newspapers on his way back to the school.  If Hiruma was the type to do so, he would’ve sighed in dismay at how easily this kid fell into old habits. In the end, it was the cherry on top of his rage cake _because the fucking store ran out of his favourite gum, the shitheads!  And now this!?_

Or maybe not.  The newspaper running was part of a bargain for a potential recruit.  The kid managed to put a chip on the board.  Who would’ve thought? Not that it mattered though, which quickly became apparent when Hiruma put up the rest of his chips. 

But progress was progress.  Determination had beaten out wimpiness in Sena this time, and was likely to do so again.  The brat was still pathetic, would be for some time, and Hiruma was still trying to figure out how he could properly channel the kid’s inner demon, but it was alright for now.  The first game was tomorrow and the fat ass had to suffer his penalty game.  


	3. Kill 'Em to Eleven Scarecrows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 1 of a double update

The sun was warm and the breeze was mild, it was perfect weather for an _amefuto_ game.  The kid had finally stopped freaking out about the fat ass’s punishment ( _he was only carrying the luggage, dammit, chill the fuck out!_ ) and was sitting quietly in the corner with his phone in hand.  Hiruma found himself curious about who he was messaging, who would the boy have as a companion that wasn’t already here and how come they haven’t developed a backbone in the little thing?  More importantly, would they be a hindrance to Hiruma, or could they help him manipulate and bend the chibi’s rage to his will? 

That could wait until after the game though, because now the kid was looking at the tournament bracket and getting far too ahead of himself and all they needed to think about right now was _today’s_ game, idiots.  So the blond took a lighter he stole from one those three idiots whom sounded like brothers and torched the paper.  This led to relatively unexpected results. 

Was the brat startled? Yes, he was.  Did he freak out a little? Yes, he did.  Did he sit there and accept it? Mostly, but not quite.  Hiruma was sure that he was the only one who could’ve noticed it, but it did happen.  The scowl was unmistakable and the wrist motion was lightning fast.  Hiruma was 98% positive that if he had that lighter out another second, the small brunette would’ve tried to set the quarterback himself on fire. 

Hiruma decided he should probably stick to shooting at the shrimp from a distance. 

The brat’s anger was gone in an instant as his focus shifted to the game and the Cupids and the rage directed at him with regards to cheerleaders.  Fucking brat was crying again.  You’d think by now the kid would understand that Hiruma always takes care of everything.  Additionally, fan girls were _so easy_ to manipulate. 

Cheerleaders in place, the stupid brat finally understood _how_ _to fucking score_ , Hiruma’s favourite huddle shout made known, and the game begins.  It went mostly as expected, the Devil Bats were terrible (of course they were, they were all subs from other teams), but the Cupids were just as bad (what’s their excuse?) and the game carried on with neither team scoring until right up at the end when the Cupids got a kick in when Ishimaru twisted his ankle. 

Fuck. 

Normally, Hiruma would have no issues with dragging the pipsqueak in against his will.  But it was grating on him that _that fucking Shin_ would see him, meaning they would lose the element of surprise they would so desperately need against Ojou in the next game. 

Musing on ways to get rid of Shin ( _fucking Sakuraba was no threat, but only he would flee at the fan girl missile about to be launched at him_ ), the quarterback’s eyes fell on the video camera Sena had left on the bench.

The blond whipped around and grinned.  Sakuraba was holding a camera.  If Sakuraba had to suddenly leave the game for some reason, he would thoughtlessly hand off the camera to Shin.  If Shin held the camera, it would inevitably break in seconds.  Shin, being technologically inept, would race after Sakuraba to find out what was wrong with the camera.

The Ojou scouts would vanish before the first hut. Hiruma loved his genius mind.

His euphoria was short lived when the little piece of shit in the eye shield started _running the wrong way! What the fuck was he doing this whole time, bird watching?!_ Well, he made up for it in the end with a touchdown, and hot damn, watching that kid run was a thing a beauty.  Sure, it took some cajoling, some encouragement, a mild guilt trip, but he did it.  The kid scored a touchdown and won them the game. 

And thus, Anezaki Mamori came running over to the bench, demanding to know what happened to Sena.  Figures that the only friend the shorty has would be the most annoying disciplinarian of the lot.  Hiruma ‘tched’ at the irony and sent the shrimp around back to change from ‘ace hero’ back to ‘half dead secretary’.  Knowing he was going to have a serious confrontation afterward, the blond went back out on the field for the try-for-point. 


	4. This Hand Won't Stop Me to Lucky Punch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of a double update

True to form, Anezaki marched straight up to him, charging through the dozen celebrating players to demand the brat’s removal from the team.  Of course, she would never phrase it that way.  As she saw it, Hiruma had been needlessly bullying Sena, which prompted him to wonder what condition she found him in.  Surely not that bad, he was walking up behind her as she was yelling.  A little dirty, a little rumpled, but not dying, injured, or even bruised.  He hadn’t even been tackled for fuck’s sake!

Whatever, Anezaki could be handled as easily as anyone else thanks to Hiruma’s Black Boo- Did she just threaten getting the team kicked out of the tournament?  _Motherfucker,_ he stood no chance against her as long as she held that kind of power and now she was _walking away with his one shot at victory and there was no way that fucking disciplinarian was ever going to let the kid near him again-_

_“I’m going to stay on the football team.”_

The kid said it.  _The kid said it._ The scrawny brat was wilfully denying probably the only person who was ever kind to him in order to continue being part of Hiruma’s team.  Hiruma knew he should be ecstatic about this development, and he was, make no mistake, but there was another emotion too.  Was it relief, maybe? Part of it was.  But there was something else, something a little deeper.  Not quite affection, but… fondness?  Had he grown fond of the shrimp?  Hiruma didn’t know how he could, he had known the kid all of three days and most of that time the brat spent whining or crying or otherwise being pathetic.  He would have to analyze this emotion later, right now he had an idea that would simultaneously get him free labour and stop Anezaki from poking her nose where it doesn’t belong so much. 

On top of that, from the looks on the faces of the recruits, the quarterback was going to have to keep the kid close to his side to prevent him from being stolen away by some other team.  That was going to be a hassle, but Hiruma couldn’t find it in himself to mind.  A little disconcerting, but he shrugged it off and chalked it up to afterglow from Deimon’s first victory, first manager, and first time having more than three team members.   

He was pretty sure the kid was a little upset with him for tricking the girl ( _not a fucking word to Anezaki about Eyeshield’s identity!_ ), but he would learn in time that everything Hiruma did was for the good of the team.   The kid would learn fast by the looks of the clubhouse the next day ( _one woman did all this in a couple of hours!? Holy shit!_ ), but there was a more important use the quarterback was going to put the female to: an experiment to see if Sena’s demon would be drawn out in defence of those around him. 

So he antagonized Anezaki, insulted her, pretty much declared war on girl right there in the clubhouse.  The kid did absolutely nothing about it but kept paying very close attention to their interaction.  The blond realized what the shrimp apparently already knew: Anezaki Mamori was perfectly capable of defending herself.  Hiruma held on to his third question to be used as a trump card at a later date. 

The watching was a reminder: _I may not know exactly how much you’re capable of, but neither do you know what I’m fully capable of._

The stare lost a lot of effect when the kid’s bench press turned out to be all of 10kg.  At first Hiruma thought maybe he was a little prejudiced on this front, already benching 75kg, but when Anezaki laid back and benched 20kg… the blond wondered if the kid would ever have any form of pride with her around.  The kid went outside afterward to practise catching away from the fucking manager’s ( _as she has officially been dubbed_ ) overly watchful eye.  Shitty thing couldn’t catch for to save his life.  Once taught how to properly catch the ball though, he was so much more successful that the quarterback couldn’t help but feel a little bit of pride. 

Also amusement when the brat saw how the team was going to arrive at the game against Ojou.  There was an aggravating minute or so when the kid disappeared ‘to buy video tapes’ and the blond set Cerberus on him, only to find out the kid had gotten changed into his gear instead of hightailing it. 

Hiruma didn’t even try to keep the absolute shock off his face.  It would’ve been wasted effort.  The brat was just a mess of contradictions, wasn’t he?  He’s terrified of physical pain, yet shows up because ‘it would be lame if the hero didn’t show up’.  He wanted to tell the fucking manager about Eyeshield 21, yet was willing to outright lie to her about what he did during games.  He cried and whined and bitched about just being the secretary, yet went out to practise catching by himself.  And that wasn’t even accounting for the demon. 

The quarterback wondered if it meant he should question his own sanity that he was naming another person’s alternate personas: Shrimp and various synonyms, Eyeshield, and Demon.

Never mind that though, the match was about to begin. 

Hiruma didn’t know why Shin was being benched but nor did he care.  This was their shot.  When the quarterback turned to the kid, he wasn’t talking to the shrimp part, or Eyeshield.  He appealed directly to Demon.  He told it that the entire stadium looked down on him, thought that Ojou had this game won before it even started.  He told it to show them what he was made of. 

He forgot that nobody taught the kid how to properly hold the ball.  Thank Satan for the fucking fat ass.  The blond nearly put a dent in the stupid brat’s helmet for that manoeuvre.  So he taught the brat how to do it, had already made sure the kid was wearing proper cleats, and hoped (which he’d never done or had to do) for no more fuck-ups.  The team lined up and the next play began. 

It would appear that the kid answered his hopes because roughly five seconds after Hiruma handed the ball off to him, the fucking shrimp scored the first touchdown of the game.  Hardly a minute in and Deimon was beating Ojou six to zilch.  Hiruma closed his eyes for a second, simultaneously relishing the voice of the referee ( _Tachidaun!_ ), and silently promising the chibi a reward just for this after the game. 

The Eyeshield personality developed its own voice and started explaining the finer points of _amefuto_.  That’s kind of weird.  Too bad it couldn’t stick around until the end of the try-for-point, because nobody was stupid enough to expect the Shrimp persona to score.  


	5. to Failure And Beginning

Hiruma liked how easily the kid accepted his outrageous idea.  Even Kurita had called it insane, and while the shrimp certainly didn’t look too enthusiastic about the plan, he followed every step of it without question.  This pleased the blond quarterback to the point that he praised the kid even though he didn’t properly catch the ball. 

This was made up for when the shorty seamlessly caught the blond’s back pass and took off down the field.  Hiruma would never get tired of watching Sena run. 

He found it vaguely irritating though, when Mr. Spear Tackle stepped on the field.  All of the kid’s focus immediately shifted and centred fixedly on _that damned Shin Seijurou._ The blond hated watching the linebacker take down his ace player again and again _and again._ By the end of the first half, the White Knights were leading twenty points to six and the combination of pain and despair was prominent in the running back’s eyes. 

But then it was gone somehow.  Hiruma didn’t know if it was seeing the other Devil Bats as exhausted and beat up as he was, or maybe Demon was stirring under the surface and wanted payback.  Either way, the brat began to run faster and faster even though he was probably ready to keel over.  Unfortunately, with Shin on the field the interceptions no longer worked, nor would the freak so much as bat an eyelash at Hiruma telling him the kid was faster ( _and it’s the truth damn it!_ ), though Ootawara’s reaction when compared to Kurita was absolutely hilarious. 

The kid was dying out there, so Hiruma put him on the bench for defence.  Obviously Deimon’s defence was absolute shit, so when the ball was turned back over to Deimon’s offence, there were four minutes and forty-five seconds left in the fourth quarter and Ojou had a fifty point lead. 

It was officially Game Over. 

Except that it wasn’t.  The kid didn’t want to give up yet.  He wasn’t going to leave that field until he had made ‘Shin-san’ eat his dust. 

Wimp-shrimp just didn’t say it like that. 

Possible speech impediments aside, the fucking shrimp had done what not even Kurita, or the fact that a certain Shinryuuji dread-head was watching could have done.  He convinced Hiruma to continue to participate in the match they were 100% chance going to lose.  The blond didn’t think twice about his reaction to the resolve in the kid’s voice ( _at least initially_ ), nor did he really attempt to classify the look on his face ( _eye shield was in the way, besides he had other shit to think about_ ).  Later, he would wonder why he did it, why he gave in so easily to a mere child’s demand.  He may write it off as being cautious of Demon, but he would never be fully satisfied with that answer, so the thought would linger unbidden in the back of his mind. 

But that came later.  Right now, he was calling a huddle. 

Xx121xX

The kid ran play after play, took tackle after tackle.  It was a miracle he wasn’t dead yet, let alone kept standing back up and running again and again.  Crashing into Sakuraba didn’t even phase him ( _and the fuck was the receiver doing on the field anyway?!_ ).  The tall boy gets carted off with a broken collar bone, and the wimpy kid doesn’t even seem to realize a collision happened.  Talk about eyes on the prize. 

And what a prize it was.  Hiruma had decided enough was enough with running outside; it was time to burst through head on.  The fat ass pulled his weight ( _or rather pushed it_ ) and held off both Ootawara and Shin just long enough for Sena to get a couple second head start. 

Which Shin swiftly eliminated. 

But that wasn’t the end of it, oh no.  Hiruma watched as Shin extended his arm and waited for the scene to play out like it had since the first quarter.  But it didn’t.  Hiruma got the chills just before it happened.  Chills that tickled his neck and shoulders every time he saw the miniscule realignment of the kid’s shoulders, the twitch of his back straightening, and the sudden firmness in his step. 

Demon was fed up.  Demon _was not_ going to go down like the shrimp had repeatedly.  Demon _was not_ going run away squealing for mommy.  Demon _was not_ going to let the adversary get away with this.  Demon _was definitely_ leaving Shin in the dust and scoring a touchdown just because he could. 

Then the shrimp collapsed. 

The blond knelt next to him, staving of concerned players as the fucking manager pulled out the first aid kit, but the kid was fine.  He had finally reached his limit though and the fat ass had to carry him off the gridiron.  The quarterback didn’t need to see the smile on the brat’s face to know it was beautiful. 

_A guy’s smile can, in fact, be described as beautiful! Fucking deal with it!_

No, the blond was not defending anything in his own mind, why would you ask that?  If it just so happened that a boy he knew had some feminine facial features ( _big, expressive eyes; small, pert nose; soft looking cheeks; lips pink from being bitten nervously_ ), then why shouldn’t he use an adjective with a feminine connotation? It was perfectly legitimate to call a smile beautiful no matter what gender the person smiling was. 

Hiruma’s mind carried on that track until he heard the kid slip up addressing the fucking manager ( _why does he call her nee-chan anyway?_ ).  Luckily, or not so depending on your point of view, Anezaki’s view of Sena was so firmly set as weak and pathetic she didn’t even to begin to connect the dots. 

Prejudices can be _really_ harsh. 

As predicted, Deimon lost.  The Spring Tournament was over for them and the fat ass cried like it was the end of the fucking world. 

Did anyone tell the kid about the Fall Tournament?


	6. to No80 Catching Expert

The fucking old man took his sweet ass time getting out here to redo the clubhouse.  The victory against Koigahama was two fucking weeks ago.  Tch.  He didn’t seem at all surprised when Hiruma called him to do the job, he didn’t bother asking who would pay for it until it had already begun, and he didn’t even blink when he was told the principal was covering the cost. 

Hadn’t so much as said hello to each other in months, and Musashi _still_ known him too damn well.  Fucker. 

But if there was one thing that the blond was a little bit grateful for, it was that the fucking manager didn’t make a big deal out of the old man being there.  She barely even greeted him.  This pleased the quarterback for two reasons: the first being that he knew that the old man didn’t like reminders of the old days and the second being that, if the brat found out who Musashi was, he might make a fuss and accidentally reopen old wounds. 

But Anezaki was discreet about it all so nothing happened.  The kid seemed to be in some pain, but that would wear off soon enough.  Hiruma gave the kid the pictures to organize and told him to separate the Sakuraba ones from the useful ones by the end of the day. 

…

School was over, where the fuck was he?  Slower than the fat ass on the forty, this kid.  It was almost funny, how he thought he could be team manger when it took him all day to do something stupid like sort pictures.  

Well, the blond and the fat ass were already on their way to the brat’s classroom to use the TV, might as well hurry him up.

What the fuck was he crying about?  Granted, he stopped as soon as Hiruma barged through the door, but the signs were still there.  Whatever it was though, the kid seemed determined to hide it, asking about the TV and why only this classroom had one. 

“ _This was our classroom last year._ ” Enough said. 

Remembering what had occurred to him just after the game yesterday, the blond made a comment about preparing for the Christmas Bowl, you guessed it, the brat had no idea that another tournament was coming up.  The kid appeared to remember and realize something ( _probably something that damned Shin said_ ) and shortly finished with the photos and left.  But as the blond glanced out the window, he noticed the shrimp out in the rain running drills.  He fell repeatedly, was probably soaked to the bone and covered in mud, but he kept getting back up, again and again and again. 

Hiruma changed his mind.  It wasn’t just his running. The kid in general was a thing of beauty.

After the blond and the fat ass finished their work and Hiruma was about to head out, the quarterback took out a small box from where he’d hidden it on his person ( _that little place he keeps all his guns, the everybody thinks is a fourth dimensional pocket_ ).  After checking to see that the lineman wouldn’t be coming back for any reason, the blond hastily wrote a note on a scrap of paper, taped it to the box, and shoved it in the kid’s desk. 

_The gloves you’ve been using are second hand and crappy quality, so I got you these.  DON’T FUCKING WASTE THEM!_

_Congrats on beating Shin._

Xx121xX

The kid seemed impressed with the new clubhouse ( _impressed, freaked out, same thing_ ) and Hiruma was pleased that the kid had borrowed a ball to practise with.  He was taking his position as running back seriously.  Soon the four Devil Bats were off recruiting.  The blond figured all the other useless clubs had enough members to carry on whatever the fuck they did, so he just tore down any other posters as he saw fit.  They had a Christmas Bowl to win. 

As he methodically tore down and pinned up posters, the blond thought back on the shorty with potential for multiple personality disorder.  He had seemed to have an idea when the necessity of a receiver was mentioned but shrunk back into himself when said receiver’s height was brought up.  Maybe the kid was debating on inviting a new recruit? Hiruma would have to ask him later about who he had in mind and just how short they were.  Depending on that vs. catching ability, it may not matter if they’re below a certain height. 

He wondered if the kid found his new gloves yet.  Did he like them? _He better fucking appreciate them! Does he know how rare it is for someone to get a present from Hiruma fucking Yoichi?  Pretty fucking rare!_

The blond needed to think about something else now.  Something like how easy it was to incite Demon at the Ojou game.  Hiruma figured being told it was being looked down on was a tad risky at the time.  He may have gone berserk on the crowd instead of in the game.  But it didn’t, it knew that to prove it wasn’t worthless to these people it had to play by their rules. 

They wanted a show, it gave them a show. 

Demon also seemed to recognize Shin.  Whether as a rival, or a form of measuring stick, or just another plain source of aggravation, Hiruma wasn’t yet sure.  But he would find out.  Right now though, he was out of posters. 

Posters up, work was done, now they were just waiting for the game on TV to start.  The kid was so distracted that he didn’t react to anything until the blond started shooting at him ( _and where did the fucking manager get a bullet proof notebook?_ ).  The look on his face when he saw what the quarterback had done for Eyeshield’s image was _fucking hilarious._ Hiruma would be laughing about that face for years. 

The kid was completely out of it the next day too.  But, after asking if _amefuto_ was a specialized sport and if extra height on a receiver was mandatory, he appeared to come to a decision of some sort.  Too bad because Hiruma had planned to make him run like a bat out of Hell today. 

Was it solely because the kid had goofed up with the posters? No.  The quarterback wanted the kid to build up stamina at his max speed because if he kept fainting every time he did 4.2 for the forty, he was going to get killed. 

That finished, it was time to hunt for receivers. 

He next came upon Sena by the shoe lockers ( _suspiciously dog-less_ ) talking to some monkey with no seat to his pants.  Remembering the brat’s earlier question about receivers and height, the blond pitched a ball at the monkey.  Who caught it.  _With one fucking hand._

_Hellooo receiver._


	7. to Hell Tower

Having bound, gagged, and caged the monkey Hiruma carted him off to the clubhouse.  Kurita was quiet, probably caught between wanting another teammate ( _and a fucking amazing receiver!_ ) and wanting to be kind to the boy.  The brat was conversely keeping up a stream of chatter, not so much trying to persuade the blond to letting the monkey go, so much as apologizing to the monkey.  There were a lot of _I would’ve warned you_ s and _You get used to him_ s and even a _I wanted you to join willingly, but I don’t think you’re going to have much choice anymore._  So the kid really had been recruiting.  The quarterback wondered if he should get another reward for noticing such a catch ( _fucking puns_ ). 

Fuck it all, Hiruma had forgotten about Anezaki’s dislike for him and his methods. 

“ _He’s Rai Montarou.”_ Monta then, the blond would have to look him up later, the name wasn’t ringing any bells. 

Not that it mattered; he was dumber than a rock.  It was blatantly obvious that the monkey liked Anezaki ( _not that she noticed, of course. Seriously did she walk around in a blindfold or something?_ ) and it was all too easy to feed him a pack of lies about the fucking manager and Eyeshield 21 ( _and the blond knows that the shrimp is despairing over his new reputation as a jack ass as he hides in the bushes_ ). 

So the monkey asked for a night to think it over, and sure enough the next morning he was wearing the jersey with the number 80.  But that wasn’t nearly as important as the look on Sena’s face, after the monkey left and he stopped hiding.  The blush, the averted eyes, the quavering little smile, Hiruma cursed his lack of camera. 

“ _Thank you, Hiruma-san… f-for the gloves, I mean.  I’ll definitely put them to good use!”_

The quarterback smirked and brushed it off like it was nothing and happened all the time, but inside he couldn’t completely suppress the relief he felt that the kid had liked his present. 

The next day was spent in the weight room.  The kid’s neck needed to be toughened up some more ( _how the fuck had he not broken it under Shin’s tackles?_ ) but what really pissed the blond off was that Ojou was breaking down.  They had only beaten the Sankaku Punks by a single, measly point when it should have been a slaughter show, thus losing the Devil Bats their advantage in recruiting.  _Fuck it all!_

He effectively calmed himself back down when given the task of setting up a home game.  He wanted some more slaves and the idiots down at Zokuto Gakuen were both physically able and had their own transportation. 

Translation: The Zokugaku biker gangs were easy to manipulate. 

He sent the brats on an errand as he set it all up.  The blond called out Habashira Rui, captain and linebacker of the Zokuto Chameleons, and then just went to town.  He absolutely loved riling people up.  Though why the shorty felt the need to defend Shin from the fucking chameleon was beyond him. 

However, when push came to shove Sena wasn’t going to be defended by Anezaki.  As the brat issued his challenge Hiruma wondered why Habashira wasn’t running screaming for the hills.  The blond could see Demon stirring in those too-big eyes from back at the clubhouse. 

Xx121xX

Delivering the death penalty to Rice-kun was great fun.  Even the fucking manager participated ( _fucking wish she wouldn’t use the flamethrower, the mess’ll be a bitch to clean up later_ ).  She quickly reverted back into Mother Mamori when they decided to have a mock practice game.  This was easily rectified by bringing Eyeshield 21 on the field. 

It was even more fun tricking the kid into giving the middle finger for a photo shoot.  Turning Eyeshield into a complete badass greatly entertained him.  It also served as a subconscious hint to the shorty.  The more he saw his alter ego as someone less than kind, the more likely it was that his Demon and Eyeshield personas would merge together.  It would be hard enough for the brat to absorb one personality let alone two. 

The next day was game day ( _and with five million yen riding on this, of course victory was assured!_ ).  Hiruma noticed with no small amount of glee that the kid was wearing his new gloves.  But there was no time to comment on that now, it was game time ( _and how did the fucking fat ass find three potential linemen?  Especially those three idiots in particular?_ ). 

As predicted, Deimon won, 46 – 28, mostly through the use of the fucking monkey and trick plays.  The fucking Huh brothers ( _don’t give a flying fuck what they say, you can’t speak in near unison like that and not be_ somehow _related_ ) had to be polished up a bit, but they certainly had potential.  The few times Eyeshield 21 showed down against Habashira were greatly entertaining.  The first time the chameleon got beat, Hiruma recognized the flash of fear that crossed the linebacker’s face and instantly knew two things: that Habashira finally noticed Demon and that this game was won. 

Now, let’s see if the recruiting thing worked. 

Monday after school was the entrance meeting, vast improvement from last year.  The fat ass once again bought a stupid amount of cream puffs ( _who wants to bet that the fucking manager eats most of them? Kekeke…_ ) and then fell asleep for half the time.

Most of idiots who came out were complete losers who weren’t worth the dirt in the blond’s cleat, but there was some potential, like that Komusubi Daikichi, even though he couldn’t even speak a full sentence.  Even the second year, Yukimitsu Manabu ( _he’s fucking BALD! What is this?!_ ) showed an interesting amount of tenacity despite his physique ( _or lack thereof_ ).  An entrance trial had been taking shape in his mind for some time and what he had now officially dubbed _Hell’s Tower_ was going to be _so much fun!_  


	8. to Knights Vs Gunmen

Silly little brats thought they were just running up the school stairs.  Their complete underestimation of his skills made Hiruma cackle.  The lesser wimps turned tail and ran at the mere sight of the Tokyo Tower, and the blond made sure the rest that stayed sweltered in front of the tower long enough to drive off a few more. 

It was hot enough to fry eggs on the concrete and boil your brains in your skull.  It was a lovely day in Hiruma’s opinion.  After checking on Anezaki and the ice cubes, the blond rallied the wannabes and explained the rules.  Get the ice to the special observatory right at the very top before it melts.  Easy, right?

Too bad the Devil of Deimon left out some key obstacles in the course.  For example, just before the grand observatory, Hell’s Watchdog picked up the scent of the sugar in the ice.  It was entertaining as Hell watching the mutt chase the kid and the monkey after chewing on a couple nameless moving bodies. 

After that there was the observatory itself.  Officially entitled Hell’s Pot of Boiling Oil, the temperature had been ratcheted up to almost dangerous levels.  The receiver and running back went back down for more ice while a few other contestants merely collapsed in exhaustion at the door. 

Hiruma’s personal favourite was Hell’s Watchman ( _and if you can’t figure out why, you’re fucking stupid, kekeke!_ ).  He took extra pleasure in shooting at the little fuck that reminded him of Agon and stole ice off the other contestants. 

At the end of the day, the kid took first place, the monkey close second ( _despite having to run all the way back down for more ice, the idiot_ ).  The miniature fat ass followed, tailed by the three brothers, all three of which seemed really aggravated by something and confused as to why they were there in the first place.  Anezaki came up shortly, explaining that the rest had all gone home before the fucking baldy fell through the door.

Now, you have to understand; Hiruma wasn’t pitying the second year when he did what did.  He wasn’t just being nice ( _because Hiruma Yoichi does NOT do nice_ ) either.  The blond saw a tenacity in the boy that was worth bending the rules for.  That tenacity was undying in the face of pain, of physical suffering, and of emotional upset.  It did not waver, it did not give, it did not back down. 

It mirrored Hiruma’s own will to win. 

So the quarterback cheated and let the half dead teenager join the team.  They’d seriously have to work on that ( _incredible lack of_ ) stamina though. 

As everyone started piling into the elevators, somehow Hiruma and Sena wound up splitting one between them.  The brat was fidgeting which meant he had something to say.

“ _Um… In Yukimitsu-san’s bag… I-I was standing really close and, um… the, uh, the ice cube wasn’t, um, there weren’t, I mean-“_

The blond snickered at the kid’s stuttering and asked what he was going to do about it.  The kid shook his head and stumbled over his words as he tried to explain that _of course he didn’t mean it like that_ and _he just thought it was nice of Hiruma-san_ but _of course Hiruma-san probably had a far more legitimate reason_ and so on and so forth. 

The quarterback just laughed and commented that the kid was finally getting it. 

Xx121xX

The next morning was first team practice and Hiruma taught his little pet project some black magic.  The brat didn’t seem all that surprised when the three brothers turned up to participate at just the mention of ‘photos’. 

After that it was easy.  Put the brothers and the mini fat ass in the same room together, and they take care of each other.  The baldy had a long way to go, but he would get there.  Everything would be fine.  They had a Christmas Bowl to win.  

After practice the fat ass brought up the upcoming Spring Tournament finals.  Shinryuuji had dominated Kanagawa as usual and the Tokyo City finals were about to begin: Ojou White Knights vs. Seibu Wild Gunmen.  The kid and the monkey wanted to watch so the blond called his new Zokugaku slaves for a ride. 

They arrived during half time ( _and Zokugaku bolted immediately to avoid the cops they had accumulated_ ) to find Ojou was falling to pieces.  The score was 20-7 and Seibu was leading. 

What really kind of ticked Hiruma off was that the Seibu quarterback, The Kid ( _seriously? Just take your mother’s surname and be done with it.  You don’t need an alias_ ) had the nerve to be upset about the score.  Pessimism is one thing, but can’t the dude accept something may go right for him for once in his life? Fuck…

The blond was also pretty sure that he was showing off Tetsuma’s skill as a receiver when he threw that water bottle.  Deciding to play along, he brought the large receiver’s stats on his laptop.  Then, the blond quarterback proceeded to teach the newbies about pass routes. 

To anyone who hadn’t figured it out already, Hiruma brought the team to the game to teach them about the effectiveness of the ‘Shotgun’ strategy and the use of multiple receivers.  He additionally needed the new linemen to get a glimpse at their job ( _the game against Zokuto doesn’t count for the brothers; it was all pretty much brawling_ ).

Tetsuma had to leave the game for some reason and Ojou made its counterattack.  The White Knights would move forward to face the Shinryuuji Nagas. 

As the Devil Bats were about to head home, Sena asked if maybe they should head back on foot for afternoon practice.  Hiruma quickly latched onto this idea and the team ran pass routes their whole way back.  But as he yelled out route names and curse words ( _Slant! Square Out! Hitch! Wrong way fucking monkey!_ ) the blond watched his running back.  The kid was running and grinning and dodging bullets just like everybody else, but when he met Hiruma’s gaze, he smiled even brighter, so happy just because his idea had been accepted by The Team Leader. 

The notion that it was Hiruma who managed to put that smile there filled the blond’s body with something light. 


	9. to The King That Challenges God

It was time to build a new change room.  It had been almost a week since the Zokuto victory and Takekura Construction had taken over.  Hiruma had the team participate in the construction on top of regular practice.  At first, it seemed the actual builders didn’t really notice, but the blond saw the old man kick around the brothers when they started slacking off. 

Musashi was being irritatingly roundabout when he was usually so direct, but he was still proving that he gave a shit about the team. 

Well, if Musashi was going to be roundabout, then so was Hiruma.  They both heard the complaining going on. 

While it was obvious that the team all heard the exchange about firm foundations between the two second years ( _because that’s what Musashi_ is, _regardless of his face_ ), only the kid turned around.  The blond met his eyes and understood that the kid knew that it wasn’t just a casual conversation.  The brat went back to his work and Hiruma to his, and the blond wondered when the kid grew to understand him so easily. 

After practice, Musashi confessed that his father was still hospitalized, which apparently reminded the chibi that he had wanted to visit Sakuraba Haruto and apologize for breaking his collarbone. 

It kind of aggravated Hiruma that the kid worried so much about this one crappy player.  Sakuraba Haruto may have had average athleticism and decent height, but there was absolutely zero determination, dead spirit where there should be fire. 

In short: _The stupid wannabe gave up too damn easily!_

However, the blond knew that the kid would bitch about it later if he wasn’t allowed to go and then the fucking manager would ask for ( _demand_ ) an explanation that Hiruma wasn’t quite sure he could give.  He didn’t really know why it aggravated him so much, it just _did._

So the brat visited the hospital ( _and came back scared out of his wits… What the fuck happened?_ ), and training carried on and soon the new change rooms were finished. 

_The fucking monkey has been on this team for how long, and he’s just now correcting his name!? Fuck that!  Raimon Tarou, Rai Montarou, it’s all written with the same characters! He’s been Monta all this time, that’s the way it’s going to stay._

For anyone who cares, Joe Montana was a quarterback, not a receiver, and there was never any mention of ‘Montana Magic’ during his career.  Just don’t tell the monkey that. _Kekeke_

That aside, Hiruma didn’t appreciate the reaction to his stating that he had applied the Deimon Devil Bats to face the American team in two weeks.  One would think that the fat ass ( _at least_ ) would have seen that coming. 

The _ping_ of new mail from the blond’s laptop drew the attention of the more curious players and Sena finally stopped staring at the locker next to _Eyeshield-san_ ’s ( _It was pure coincidence that Sena and Hiruma’s lockers were right next to each other! It was! Okay, the bond meddled a bit, but he needed to keep an eye on Demon.  Really, that’s it!_ ). 

So, the Taiyou Sphinx were chosen, hm? Of course they were; the quarterback knew they would be.  So without an ounce of regret, the second year set up an interview with _Monthly Amefuto_ for the enigmatic Eyeshield 21. 

The kid was relatively obedient throughout the whole infiltration process and was smart enough to send pictures of the screen to Hiruma when he didn’t understand what was going on, which the blond appreciated.  In no time at all, Deimon was sitting in the magazine’s management department discussing emails that had been sent to both the school and the American team stating that the Devil Bats were to be the representatives of Japan. 

The Taiyou team was also present and objecting.  So the devious quarterback challenged them to a match and, of course, they accepted. 

Over the following few days, Hiruma and Kurita spent a lot of time at the magazine finalizing details and it seemed that there had been some trouble with the fucking brothers.  But everything smoothed itself over without the blond having to lift a finger, so he deemed them capable enough to go train with Zokugaku.  The brat’s bench press ratcheted up from 10kg to 40kg which, while not all that impressive, he seemed to take great pride in when telling his captain.  Something in said captain wouldn’t allow the kid to be shot down and instead gave Sena one of Hiruma’s more human grins.

The heat on game day was brutal; even Hiruma felt just a tad uncomfortable.  It seemed that both the elements and the crowd were going to be against them.  The kid took one look at the Kanagawa linemen and you could practically hear his knees knocking together.  The fucking monkey dropping the Banba model on the Eyeshield model ( _effectively crushing it to pieces_ ) did not help in the slightest. 

Although, he did make his first tackle ever that opening play.  The blond contemplated giving the boy another small prize.  He liked recording the kid’s milestones that way: first tackle, first touchdown ( _Koigahama didn’t count because they were shit and Sena only played for the last two minutes_ ).  The quarterback decided to wait until after the game to analyze why he was so hung up on celebrating the kid’s firsts.  As of this moment, his line was falling apart, Kurita was in tears, and it was only the second play. 

A couple rousing words and some bullshitting got the line back together, but the crowd was still a problem.  They couldn’t make fun of Sena or the back team, but they were really laying it on thick on the three brothers.  The blond watched as the kid held Monta back from giving them a piece of his mind, but it was obvious that the taunting was bothering him considerably.  The audience needed to shut up fast or Demon was going to have a bloodbath. 

Hiruma gave the kid a trick play just to keep him occupied although he probably would’ve been more successful just letting the kid run given the monkey’s fuck up. 

During the play where Harao ( _who the fuck uses third person omniscient? The word is ‘I’ not ‘One’_ ) fumbled the ball and the kid grabbed it, the blond fully expected him to run out of bounds to avoid getting pummelled by the gigantic baldy.  Much to everyone’s surprise, the kid faced the lineman head on and gained an extra yard. 

The boy would later admit to his captain that a voice in his head told him that Notre Dame heroes don’t run from challenges and that was why he didn’t run out.  Poor kid was becoming aware of his multiple personalities.  Who knew what would happen if he discovered Demon. 

Deimon was only behind by one point at half time, but after that the monkey started having trouble dealing with a new cornerback.  What was with this team and needing constant encouragement?  So what if the monkey gets knocked off balance for a second he just needs to get his ass up and running that much faster, the moron. 

When the receiver finally caught a pass and put the score at 20-18 for Taiyou, the quarterback knew that, once again, it was going to be Sena who makes or breaks it for Deimon.  They needed to score a touchdown for the try-for-point, or they would lose.  Given the kid’s erratic track record with fighting head on and the blond’s idea for getting through, Hiruma wouldn’t bet on the kid being able to do this on his own. 

He needed Demon. 

So he said two things to the running back: the first was not to run to the side like a coward, and the second being a really cryptic way of saying ‘go straight’. 

Implying that the kid was frightened incited Demon’s anger and the semi riddle used Eyeshield’s brains.  It was the combination of the two that perfected the move Hiruma first saw back in April from a kid running from bullies.  It was that combination that gave birth to the mother of all running back techniques: The Devil Bat Dive. 

_Yes, the boy deserves another present._


	10. to Black Panther

The kid twisted his shoulder upon landing which immediately set off some weird alarm in the blond’s head ( _He’s hurt! He’s hurt!_ ) and made him limit the number of times the kid could use the new move in a game.  The blond _really_ did not like seeing the kid in pain.  He was debating how to properly bandage the kid without the fucking manager noticing anything when Banba walked over. In his eyes, the fact that Deimon had forced a tie under such disadvantageous circumstances was absolutely amazing.  As a result, the Taiyou team would forfeit the right to play the Americans. 

Icing on the cake in Hiruma’s opinion. 

After some celebratory yelling through a megaphone, the blond sent Anezaki off to refill water bottles and dragged Sena off behind the change rooms.  The brat’s face turned a few shades of red upon the demand to strip, but he complied without a word of protest ( _interesting_ ).  As the older athlete bandaged the kid’s shoulder, talking him through it step by step so he could do it himself, the blond noticed a slightly dazed look in those too-big eyes.  He snapped at the boy for not paying attention and the brat blushed again as he stumbled over an apology.

_“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!  It’s just, um… I-I, well, I like your hands, Hiruma-san.  They’re bigger than mine, but not as much in a fist, you know?  And they’re gentle.  So it’s nice.”_

The boy smiled shyly at his upperclassman and thanked him for the bandaging.  Said upperclassman smirked back and told the kid to put his shirt back on.  It was time to go to Enoshima. 

The blond got a serious kick out of the fact that the fucking manager actually made a picture story show to explain the history of Shinryuuji to Sena and the others ( _on one hand, she’d make a great kindergarten teacher, on the other, HE’S SIXTEEN FOR FUCK’S SAKE!_ ).  It was even funnier when she chastised Sena for calling her on her less than perfect drawings.  

Shortly after, Hiruma made the kid go change into Eyeshield 21 to capitalize on the many reporters hanging around.  Failure on that front was foretold by Anezaki’s decision to join him for whatever reason.  Such a fact did not stop the blond’s raging at him for not getting changed. 

The blond only let up after he saw that something happened in the time he was gone that had triggered Demon, and Demon was still awake. 

So he made a tactical retreat and changed the subject to the cornerback Hosokawa Ikkyuu.  The most interesting thing they heard that day though had to be the name of Ojou’s new battle strategy: The Ballista. 

The White Knights didn’t use it for some reason and Shinryuuji won that day.  Hiruma would never admit it to anybody, but he held a lot of respect for Kongo Unsui.  They were similar in many ways: average physique, fast and adaptable thinkers, and undying determination to win.  On top of that, the bald quarterback had to deal with the fucking dreads 24/7 since birth.  If anything got you Hiruma Yoichi’s respect, it was that. 

Speaking of the fucking dreads, he just pitched a football at a kid in a wheelchair.  Isn’t that typical?  The blond alternated between wondering how they had ever really worked together and debating whether or not Hiruma himself had been Agon’s outlet for violence.  Hopefully yes because then he’d have been less likely to beat on children ( _Hiruma was a foul person but even_ he _had limits_ ). 

Saving the smaller boy apparently dispelled whatever was keeping Demon at the surface, so the running back was now safe to intimidate again.  Additionally, it appeared that the monkey caught the attention of Ikkyuu.  That would become quite the rivalry, anyone could see. 

But that was for the Fall Tournament.  The most important thing to think about now was the game against the Americans tomorrow. 

Or not, because the coach of the NASA Aliens was a racist son of a bitch (AN/ He really is.  When Apollo was first introduced, I felt embarrassed to be the same skin tone as him).  What the idiotic Coach Apollo did not understand was that one did not simply blow off the Devil Bats.  _Kekeke_

_It’s movie time!_

By the time Hiruma was done, not only had Apollo agreed to play them the following month, but had also declared that the NASA Aliens would not return to America if they did not win by at least ten points.  The blond graciously accepted the bet by saying in turn that if the Devil Bats did not win by at least ten points, then they would leave Japan. 

Such a deal proved to be quite an incentive to practise.  The fucking brothers came out repeatedly without being called, the baldy ran laps until two in the morning, even the kid kept trying to ward off Anezaki’s mothering ( _with limited success.  He trips backwards and she decorates his head in band-aids.  What the fuck?_ ).  It was decided that each of the three brothers would get his own locker. 

But why, oh why, did the fucking manager have to pick up that kick tee?  It’s Musashi’s property, if she’d looked, she’d have seen that it was in his locker.  Fuck it all, now the kids were asking questions that Hiruma did not want to answer.  The visit from Bando’s Sasaki Kotarou just rubbed salt on the wound because now the kids were _really_ curious ( _of course they were.  Anyone would be curious about an upperclassman called ‘The 60-Yard Magnum_ ).  The blond knew that they may go looking for Musashi ( _not that they’d ever find him, even as he built a new kennel for Cerberus after the Taiyou tie_ ), but what Hiruma did not know was that the whole time Sena was searching through scrapbooks and student records he was thinking about his captain smiling at him for getting back an old teammate. 

Of course, the blond never counted on Musashi coming out and admitting who he was.  But he did, so there no point dwelling on it. 

It was time to teach the team about defence.  The quarterback had a feeling that when Sena was introduced to Panther it would be a repeat of when he met Shin.  Sure enough, the kid’s eyes zeroed in on the dark skinned ball boy on the screen and stayed there. 

Hiruma felt that same irritation as the day of the Ojou game and this time he was starting to figure out why.  He _found_ the kid therefore he should have a monopoly on the kid’s attention.  He knew and made himself known to sides of the boy that Sena didn’t even know were there.  He could read the boy like a child’s book and devoted more than half of his energy towards the brat’s handling.  He was gentler than normal and put up with regular hassles ( _coughAnezakicough_ ) for the kid. 

Shin couldn’t put that kind of claim on the running back, nor could Panther, or even Anezaki despite knowing Sena the longest.  Sena belonged to Hiruma.  This was a fact. 

_And there was nothing anybody could do about it._


	11. to Doburoku The Trainer

If there was one thing about Kobayakawa Sena’s personality that Hiruma would never _ever_ get tired of, it was his complete obedience.  It wasn’t two seconds after the kid admitted to being thankful that he didn’t have to tackle the Aliens’ quarterback, Homer, that the blond taught him the blitz.  And so the running back turned right back around and started practising tackling large, man-shaped targets. 

Although, it made him feel strangely ill at ease when the boy agreed to sleep over at Kurita’s place so they could come to practice earlier in the morning.  This was ridiculous for a myriad of reasons: first, it’s _Kurita._   The guy was raised by _monks_ and lived in a _Buddhist temple._   He didn’t have a deceptive bone in his body and couldn’t even begin to imagine turning on Hiruma in any way.  Secondly, the mini fat ass had been staying there for weeks and nothing bad has happened to him.  Finally, the monkey is going too and he and the kid have always had each others’ backs ( _except when it comes to Hiruma; Sena will perpetually, unfailingly, side with Hiruma_ ).  Nevertheless, the blond knew he would stay uncomfortable until he saw the brunette next. 

Which would turn out to be the next morning when the kid called him, hysterical, hung over, and hanging from a tree in the _lion’s den at the local zoo!_

Hiruma’s intuition was right.  Of course it was.  _Shit._

So the quarterback went to the kid’s rescue, got him down from the tree and out of the pit, watched quietly as he puked in a trash can, and bought him some painkillers and a bottle of water.  He made sure to yell at the kid and constantly reiterate that this would not excuse him from practice, just to make sure no one who may have been around thought he was going soft. 

_Note to self: The kid stared for 0.8 seconds longer than normal at a pair of extra lightweight cleats in an athletic wear department window display._

Musashi stopped by to mention that he had a bet going with the kids: beat the American team and he’ll come back.  The blond laughed, saying that even if the Americans won, the fucking old man would come back on his own anyway. 

Kid got the cleats at the exact length of time before the game to properly break them in and still have them at peak condition to compete in.  Hiruma had calculated the brat’s practice time in exact microseconds.  The shorty’s face had lit up a tree at Christmas when he opened the box and the blond had that light feeling again. 

After that, Hiruma advertised almost like never before.  Come game day, the stands were bursting with Japanese spectators.  This time the crowd was on the Devil Bats’ side ( _less likely Demon would lose it_ ).  The devilish quarterback quite enjoyed making use of his extensive list of English synonyms for ‘penis’ and yes, he was completely sure that his was bigger than Apollo’s, nationality be damned.  Sena took first blitz. 

It failed.  Even when Komusubi or Juumonji got Homer it failed.  It continued to fail until the Eyeshield part of Sena started shining through.  He had figured out a way to attack Homer at his weak point and he asked if he could try.  Hiruma grinned and dared him to. 

And so, the Japanese representatives were put on the board, but more importantly, the Japanese quarterback was reminded that Sena’s greatest asset wasn’t his legs; it was Demon.  Everybody and their mother recognized the brat’s change-of-pace talent, but it wasn’t really _Sena_ doing it.  _Sena_ got scared, slowed down, stopped moving; _Demon_ got pissed, stepped up took off.  Demon understood that he couldn’t play by his own rules here.  Demon also understood that it would hurt the enemy a lot worse if they got beaten at their own game.

Demon wanted Panther to play.  Fuck.

Even throwing him behind the sweep manoeuvre didn’t shift his focus from the lithe American.  If anything, his resolve hardened with each touchdown scored.  Hiruma watched the kid’s face flicker between his default and rage personalities as every eye turned to the American team kneeling before their coach. 

Panther started putting a uniform on.  Double fuck. 

During the last minute, Japan was down by seven points and Panther was racing up the field with the ball.  Hiruma could tell from the chills running up and down his spine that Demon, playing safety now, had had just about enough of being beaten by this guy.  The only problem was grabbing the ball back from him.  After that, it would be stealing-candy-from-a-sleeping-infant-with-a-blind-deaf-mother easy to score another touchdown.  Luckily enough, the kid noticed that Panther was incredibly sloppy with holding the ball.  Poor Panther didn’t even see it coming when Demon ripped the ball out of his hands and turned around, bolting back down the field. 

The kid got them to only one point behind but that was it for him.  The Devil Bat captain rounded up the rest of his team for the two-point-conversion but ultimately, the team fell when the kid did. 

The Japanese quarterback was irritated that they lost, but didn’t dwell on it for too long.  The important thing now was to start getting things together for the Devil Bats’ trip to America.

* _sigh_ * America, the land of _legalized firearms!_

The blond knew he and the gun shopkeeper would get along famously ( _especially since the man had no qualms with the subject of smuggling_ ), even if he was a tad nervous about putting a loaded gun in Sena’s hands ( _it was alright though, his skinny little arms couldn’t handle the recoil for him to aim properly_ ).  There was also much fun involved, shooting the target through the gaps of arms of a couple idiot Americans.  He was going to keep that gun just to cackle over.  The best part was, after watching Seibu’s Kid shoot, Hiruma was now 100% certain of the other quarterback’s identity. 

Useless shitty brats couldn’t even do short passes properly.  Tch, whatever.  100000 yen in club funds was practically in their grasp and fuck if the blond was going to let it slip through their fingers.  So he disposed of Sena’s little guardian angel and took her place. 

Too Tattoo ( _what the fuck kind of name was that? Seriously Doburoku, you may be drunk most of the time, but even you aren’t that bad_ ) didn’t even know what hit them.

Speaking of the alcoholic coach, he finally woke up to see two thirds of the Maoh Trio before him.  After introducing himself to the team ( _as a lazy bum and complete pervert_ ) he offered to give the Seibu coach, quarterback, receiver, and cow a ride out to their ranch in his big rig.  Seibu agreed and offered in return a place to stay for the homeless Deimon. 

The barbeque at Ben Ranch was an excellent feast, though it did include some less than wonderful activities, such as Doburoku taking a swing at the blond, forcing said teen to block it with a pumpkin ( _which was hilarious_ ), over Musashi ( _and the fucking first born Huh brother kept staring at the kid_ ).  But the most interesting part of the night was what came after. 

Hiruma had noticed the kid getting bullied by a cow ( _a fucking cow_ ), was aware that the kid had been chased into the large rodeo pen near the campfire.  But it wasn’t until much later that he realized that there hadn’t been a peep from either of them after that.  Most of the team had gone to bed already, and anyone left out was either falling asleep in their seats ( _Anezaki waiting for Sena_ ) or too drunk to understand what was going on around them ( _Doburoku and the Seibu coach_ ).

This was incredibly convenient because when Sena came out of the shadows again, it wasn’t actually Sena anymore. 

Demon’s eyes focused on the blond ( _said blond being the only conceivable threat in the vicinity_ ) and gestured him forward as he slunk around the corner of the barn.  It was extremely unusual behaviour for an extremely unpredictable kid.  So Hiruma gripped his new M16 a little tighter and followed the smaller boy. 

Upon rounding the corner, the taller teenager stopped, seeing those too-big eyes shining at him like an animal’s.  He asked the kid what he needed.

“ _You are a great aggravation to us, yet you are indispensable to our survival.”_ Hiruma completely froze upon hearing the voice that was Sena’s but _not,_ and the realization that this was the first time Demon had ever spoken in his presence, maybe at all. “ _We have flourished under your care, but are held back by your chains.  We are all Sena but we are bound to the wishes of The Original; he will not speak out against you.  We are entirely yours to control.  I alone cannot accept this.”_ The blond could feel himself break out into a cold sweat, but was still determined not to show any weakness.  “ _If we must be yours, then you must be ours to the same degree.”_

For a split second, Hiruma lost his focus as he wondered at the implications of that statement.  But a split second was too long, and the quarterback found himself lying in the grass, hands bound in tight little grips on either side of his face, his gun lost in the dark, and the kid’s mouth roughly slanted over his own. 


	12. to Advance!  Devil Bat Troops!

There have been few times where the mind of Hiruma Yoichi had completely frozen, yet that is exactly what happened.  For the span of what must have been a minute or two ( _but felt like eternity_ ) the blond’s instincts ( _hormones_ ) kicked in and the pinned teen kissed back ( _this doesn’t seem like kissing; it was too rough and animalistic to be a kiss, had too much teeth_ ). 

Then the blond’s brain kicked back in and he, deciding _why the fuck not?,_ rolled them both over ( _he_ is _a Hell of a lot stronger than the kid, Demon or no Demon_ ) so that he was on top of the smaller teen, the blond’s longer legs between the brunette’s quicker ones ( _in case Demon decided he didn’t quite appreciate the new position_ ).  Retrieving his tongue from where it had gone exploring in Sena’s mouth, the quarterback grinned and stated that he had no issue with such an arrangement.  Hiruma understood the value of loyalty and would gladly exchange his own for Demon’s, for Sena’s, and for that of anyone else that resided inside that brunette head.  Although, the captain was curious about a few things: was Sena aware of what was happening?  Was he aware of the others?  How many others were there?

“ _The Original knows that he is influenced by us to a degree, but he thinks we are just a combination of adrenaline and emotion in particular situations.  He does not comprehend what we are or that we are always with him.  He is so far unconscious that he will remember this as a vague dream he had.  There are two of us aside from The Original: myself whom you have taken to addressing as Demon, and the other whom who you know as Eyeshield.  He especially has grown since we met you.”_ A dream, huh? That will be a slight let down, but at least Hiruma now knows that he has something to capitalize on.  The brat’s too shy to admit his feelings, so the blond will have to draw them out himself.  Said blond’s thought process swiftly diverted back to the present when Demon got a hand loose and grabbed the bulge in the blond’s pants that had formed during their previous activities.  “ _Now if you don’t mind, I was rather enjoying myself and would like to get back to what I was doing please.”_

Demon is surprisingly courteous, for a manifestation of rage. 

Sealing their mouths back together, Hiruma manoeuvred them so that he was sitting against the barn wall, the kid on his lap.  The kid’s hands were clawing along his captain’s neck and across his shoulders, while the quarterback’s longer fingers busied themselves getting under the boy’s t-shirt and up across the skin of his torso.  Demon hissed when one of Hiruma’s nails scraped over a nipple by accident, so the blond smirked into their not-quite-kiss and repeated the act agonizingly slowly.  Demon’s breath started coming in pants, but he would not moan. 

_Challenge Accepted._

Breaking the kiss, Hiruma pushed the kid’s shirt up a little more so his mouth could pick up where his hands left off as they proceeded down to unbutton the shorts they encountered and slip past a thin pair of boxers and grasp at the prize. 

Demon, having nothing left to occupy his lips with, struggled to keep some, more embarrassing sounds suppressed.  Every sensation that the captain dealt him was piling up within him and he could feel The Original’s delight.  The Original was ecstatic and wanted nothing more than to show Hiruma just how good he was making them feel.  Eyeshield’s devotion may have been more platonic than that of the others, but it was stronger too, so he was struggling to merely keep himself together.  Only Demon had any pride on this front, but even he was withering under the movements of a firm hand, soft tongue and sharp teeth.  Once the blond started lightly applying his nails to the quivering organ in his hands, it was the end of any idea of pride.  The boy whimpered and moaned and clung to the broad shoulders of his upperclassman, his hips shifting awkwardly, trying to feel more, of what he did not know.  He was standing on the edge of a cliff, The Original wanted him to jump and Hiruma was steadily tugging him forward into open air. 

The blond made a light nip on the collar bone ( _not hard enough to mark, it would freak the kid out when he woke up_ ), and Demon found himself free falling. 

With one last, drawn out cry the boy arched and then slumped forward onto Hiruma’s chest, in a dead faint.  The quarterback wiped his hands off on the grass beside him and was debating the risks and consequences of the team seeing him carry the kid in with a boner in his pants against the kid waking up to the sight him jacking off first.  This decision was taken out of his hands when the kid abruptly sat back up.  The blond noted by the set of the shoulders and look in the eyes that in was neither Sena nor Demon.  It was Eyeshield. 

“ _The other one was overwhelmed.  He’s asleep now.  On behalf of him, The Original, and myself, I’ve come to return the favour.  What would you have of me?”_ Figures the brunt of the kid’s sexual desire was encased in the other personas.  Demon was dominating and demanding, while Eyeshield was submissive and obedient.  Curious to see where this could take him, the captain told the boy in his lap to do as he saw fit. 

The first thing the brunette did was kiss his upperclassman.  It was a proper kiss this time, soft and languid.  He kissed the blond again under the jaw then moved down to place a kiss on the collarbone.  Next he put one on Hiruma’s sternum through his t-shirt, then his heart ( _cold and black as it is_ ), and then a few more down the blond’s torso to the waistline of his pants.  The boy looked up at his captain as he slowly undid the button, pulled down the zipper and shifted the boxers to unsheathe the quarterback’s rather impressive erection.  Leaning forward, the first year kissed that too, right on the tip, before taking as much as he could in his mouth and wrapping his hands around the rest. 

Every muscle in the quarterback’s body seized from the heat that started from that mouth and flooded the rest of his body.  The kid wasn’t particularly _good_ at what he was doing, but he seemed to have an idea, minding his teeth and using his tongue.  The second year leaned his head back, closed his eyes and focused on breathing as his hand wound its way through soft brown locks, more to hold on to than anything else.  As he neared his finish, Hiruma figured he could be kind just this once and dragged the kid up off his dick and forward for more of that proper kissing, as he finished with his own hand.  He couldn’t help biting the kid’s lip as he came and he hoped it wasn’t too hard, or he’d be suspicious in the morning. 

After wiping his hands off once more ( _he had been careful about not getting the stuff on clothes_ ), he shoved himself back in his pants and turned to the Eyeshield persona who seemed to be awaiting orders.  He smirked softly ( _because smiles just didn’t happen_ ) and fixed the boy’s appearance, adjusting his shirt, doing up his pants, and de-ruffling his hair.  The kid seemed to want another kiss so Hiruma gave him one and told him to go to bed, he would need his energy in the morning.  The first year nodded as they both stood up.  The blond grabbed his gun from where it had disappeared to when Demon first jumped him.

They came around the corner and ran straight into Juumonji. 

The armed blond could tell right away that the delinquent-turned-athlete had either heard or witnessed what just went down between himself and his ace player ( _or at least two thirds of him_ ) and thanked whatever had stopped the lineman from interrupting.  The scarred blond told the kid that Anezaki was looking for him, prompting the smaller first year to bid them both good night. 

The remaining two stared each other down.  Juumonji asked if he heard what he thought he heard.  Hiruma asked so what if he did.  Juumonji told him that just because they were away from home, didn’t mean he could rape innocent kids.  Hiruma grinned and asked who said it wasn’t consensual on both sides.  Juumonji growled about how anyone with eyes could tell that Sena regarded every word of Hiruma’s as law.  The captain said strip, the kid would strip, no questions, no complaints.  Hiruma struggled not to snicker at the fact that this had already happened.  Instead he made a show of rolling his eyes and being irritated about having to explain himself, eventually swearing on his little black book that his claim on Sena was in no way against the brat’s will.  Juumonji narrowed his eyes at Hiruma and said if that situation changed, he’d break every bone in the quarterback’s body, and he walked into the barn. 

Hiruma tched to himself.

Xx121xX

The team got up early the next morning to find that the Seibu team was already practising and Doburoku got them doing Indian Style Running.  That night Hiruma convinced him to take the Devil Bats on the Death March. 

The next day, as they all stood in front of the plane and beckoned the others down to Hell, Hiruma watched as every player he had collected, even those fucking brothers, crossed the line on their own.  Finally only Sena was left.

The blond quarterback had been watching the kid this whole time and never saw so much as a trace of the other personalities.  Whether or not Sena; pure, unadulterated Sena; was going to be loyal to him was being tested as he hesitated on the wrong side of the line. 

He crossed over and tore up his ticket.  The captain couldn’t remove the grin from his face if he tried. 

After gassing up the truck one last time, the Devil Bats set off for Las Vegas.  The back team ran whatever pass route Hiruma yelled at them as he rained bullets on them.  The line got behind the truck and started pushing.  Sena was given a rock to kick. 

The first few nights were rough on everyone, the three brothers nearly bailed ( _well, two did, Juumonji didn’t seem so keen on the idea_ ).  Even the quarterback suffered from the strain.  It was a rather large insult to his pride when Anezaki insisted on taking care of him after he made a point of appearing perfectly fine in front of the others ( _so he did not sit still for her at all_ ).  Of course, when the kid came around the corner, it wasn’t nearly as aggravating.  The blond noted the knees wrapped in ice packs and felt a brief twinge for the kid.  He wouldn’t have as much access to the cold’s anaesthetic as the rest of them, because the fucking manager would get suspicious if she saw him wearing them.  From the firmness in the steps and the calm in the eyes, the blond strategist figured this to be Eyeshield. 

He was proven correct when the boy said that The Original had gone to sleep, firmly believing his captain was indestructible, but Demon and himself weren’t so naïve.  The brunette sighed when he saw ‘Mamori-neechan’s’ handiwork.  When asked, the kid said he would not have aided his upperclassman, for that would be to acknowledge said upperclassman’s need for aid.  If Hiruma wanted help, he would ask for it.  Hiruma ruffled the kid’s hair and got a kiss in return. 

“ _Demon likes fooling around with you and I’ve always been yours on some level, but two thirds isn’t going to cut it, Hiruma-taichou.  We will help The Original out through the day, so he’ll be more conscious at night, but from there out it’s on you to make the moves.  The Original is very shy.”_ The blond promised to get a move on with that front and, after one more kiss, the boy bid his captain good night.


	13. to Raw Diamond

The days passed quickly and routinely.  The team would get up at dawn, get as far as they could in the span of twenty-four hours, and then collapse, delirious with exhaustion and sleep for twelve to eighteen hours and relax for the remaining time until they had to repeat the process.  True to their promise, Demon and Eyeshield had been helping the kid with his training.  As such, the kid was full of energy when he told Hiruma that he had figured out how to brake without slowing down.  The blond knew that the figuring out part was all Sena as well ( _he tripped on a fucking crack. There’s no way it_ wasn’t _him_ ).  The captain grinned at him and ruffled his hair, like he did with Eyeshield, then tugged him behind the truck and out of Anezaki’s sight.

Sitting the kid down, the blond started wrapping ice packs around the boy’s knees, explaining that he’ll run as much interference as possible between the running back and manager, so that she won’t notice the packs, but the brat should probably get on the truck and under a blanket so he can keep them on all night.  Sena smiled shyly at him and thanked him, but when he moved to stand his knees buckled and gave away completely.  Sighing dramatically, the blond picked up his running back bridal style and manoeuvred them both on to the truck bed.  After carefully setting the brunette down, making sure to mind the knees, Hiruma mentioned he had to go back for his gun.  It was an excuse to go deal with his own aches and injuries. 

He was back shortly, and by now everyone else was also on the truck, settling in to sleep.  The space next to Sena was still suspiciously empty, even though, he’s usually surrounded on all sides, but the blond didn’t exactly care about the _why_ s or the _how_ s.  But he knew that neither he nor Sena were going to complain about sleeping in such close quarters that night.  Sure enough, the kid didn’t make a sound when Hiruma wriggled his way right up against Sena so that their backs were pressed together.  The captain assumed the kid must have had some kind of full-body blush going on, if the abnormally high body temperature was anything to go by. 

The blond rolled over so he was almost spooning the boy and held his wrist to the kid’s forehead, making some quiet remark about not getting sick until they reach Vegas.  Of course, the moment their skin came into contact, the brat’s arms shot down to hide the front of his shorts. 

Poor kid, humiliated by an erection, but unable to keep it a secret.  The quarterback smirked. 

Now, Hiruma’s ears weren’t just for show.  He could tell by the sounds of breathing that every person on the truck bed was already sound asleep.  So he snuck his other hand up, under the boy’s neck and over his mouth and the hand on the brunette’s forehead slid down, the cheek, the neck, the shoulder, along the arm, to where his hands were shaking.  Pulling the boy flush against his larger body, the captain whispered at him not to be afraid.  Deftly moving the smaller hands out of his way, the blond grasped the kid’s hard on through the material, causing Sena to practically convulse in his upperclassman’s arms.  Hiruma pressed his lips to the brunette’s neck and quietly undid his shorts. 

The kid’s hands wrapped around his wrist, attempting to stop him, but the captain easily broke past the meagre defence and twisted long fingers around the boy’s erection.  Putting his lips back to the smaller teen’s ear, the blond told him to relax; they both knew how much he wanted this.  Just leave it to Hiruma, he can make it feel good, feel _really_ good, but don’t make a sound, okay, or the others will wake up. 

Sena nodded and the blond moved his hand from the kid’s mouth to under his shirt and started playing the little pink buds that resided there.  One of the brunette’s hands came up to press its knuckles over his lips, the other staying firmly wrapped around his upperclassman’s wrist, the grip more encouraging than dissuading now.  The quarterback shifted them around so that the kid was on his back and his captain hovered over him.  

Remembering how Demon reacted, Hiruma tried running his nails across the heated flesh in his hands, which was rewarded with much writhing and stifled sounds of pleasure.  Pressing his face back into the boy’s neck, the second year gave a couple light nips at the skin he found there.  He was debating on kissing the first year, like he did with Eyeshield ( _because it was fucking delicious_ ), when his ear’s twitched.  Somebody’s breathing had changed. 

Somebody had woken up. 

In a matter of microseconds, the blond had triangulated the sound to its person of origin and found himself giving a rather harsh bite to the brunette underneath him because, of course, it was _that fucker Juumonji who woke up._

It took about a second for Hiruma to decide what to do ( _read: the most efficient option to keep the lineman quiet and carry on with his activities involving Sena_ ) and with a little sleight of hand, he managed to get the brunette’s arms wrapped around his shoulders as he went in for that kiss.  The conniving strategist knew that the former delinquent had a decent view of what was going on and revelled in such a situation because everything about Sena’s body language said he was thoroughly enjoying this, so the muscled blond had no right or reason to interrupt.  The captain looked out of the corner of his eye and met Juumonji’s stare, smirking when the lineman sighed in what could only be submission, and rolled over so that he didn’t have to watch.  _Victory._

It didn’t take much longer for the kid to finish, his last whimper swallowed by his upperclassman’s lips.  The older teen released the boy and cleaned them both off with tissues pulled out of his bag.  Sena had an odd look on his face and kept fidgeting.  He wanted to ask something, probably a few things, but Hiruma just smirked and told him to go to sleep.  The blond would let him know when he could return the favour. 

Of course, it wasn’t long before Demon came along looking for trouble, and Eyeshield shortly after.  Sena himself never took the initiative, but the quarterback knew he wanted to play on the nights he kept an empty space next to where he slept ( _The eldest brother never bothered them again_ ).  The blond found his routine changing slightly as his escapades started to cycle through the three personas.  He never out right fucked the boy ( _any of him_ ) because it would be extremely detrimental to his training, and the boy would be suffering enough with the condition of his knees.

He started realizing that his attachment to the kid had grown significantly shortly after they had hit San Antonio.  Everyone had been grateful for the chance to shower and sleep in an actual bed, and Hiruma got a substantial amount of pleasure from the blush on Sena’s face after seeing his upperclassman come out of the showers shirtless ( _never get bored of teasing the shrimp_ ).  It was during the next day’s run that the blond discovered the nagging sense of _something is wrong_ rang true.  Checking over his shoulder, he noticed that the shorty who had been so close behind them for the last few days was no where to be found.  It was only from years of practice that he kept his cool, but he couldn’t shake the thought that something terrible had happened, and they were leaving an easily frightened child with multiple personality disorder stranded in a strange place with a strange language even though the blond had told him that the second year would take responsibility for him, promised it to _all fucking three of him-_

Needless to say when the brat finally called him, the quarterback was _not happy_ , but the anger didn’t make it any easier to stifle the relief he felt that the boy was perfectly fine, if a little lost.  The kid caught up easily enough, but for some reason brought an idiot and a girl with him.  Hiruma allowed the Taki siblings to run with them on the off chance that Natsuhiko ( _on second thought, he’s just Taki_ ) could be a passable tight end.  Suzuna might as well play cheerleader while she was here. 

The blond walked away from the campfire, shortly followed by his running back.  Around the side of the truck, they stopped and looked at each other.  Sena took one, two, three steps forward.  Hiruma reached out and drew him in the rest of the way.  The blond wrapped his arms around the first year’s smaller body and rested his forehead on the kid’s shoulder.  He practically growled that if the brat ever, _ever,_ tried something like this again, he would be handcuffed to the captain _for the rest of his fucking life._   The boy’s arms came up to encircle the blond’s neck.

_“I missed you too, Hiruma-san.”_


	14. to BlackJack Is 21

After the hug-and-threaten thing happened, Hiruma found that the kid had taken to sticking to him like glue.  The boy kept pace with him during the runs, even while zig-zagging, carrying Yukimitsu for a brief spiel, and eventually kicking two separate halves of the rock.  Additionally, the brunette had started to make a point of sleeping next to the blond, whether he wanted to fool around or not.  The captain still had regular little escapades with all three personalities, but now they always curled into his side and used him for a pillow when finished.  The quarterback knew that anyone else doing this would annoy the fuck out of him, but it didn’t with Sena. 

The only down side was that Demon kept trying to give him pet names.

Sena just called him Hiruma-san, Eyeshield was more formal, calling him Hiruma-taichou, but Demon had something different every time.  Hiru-kun, Hicchan, Yoichi-taichou, even Yo-chan.  Upon inquiry, Demon casually commented that it was one of his greatest pleasures to aggravate other people, but very rarely did he get the chance to do so. 

_Figures._

The blond didn’t bother telling the brunette off for it ( _there were much more entertaining ways to silence any coherent speech. Kekeke…_ ) and they continued what the quarterback suspected might be the beginnings of some kind of fucked up, four-way-but-really-two-way relationship. 

The funny part was that, even though he had touched the original Sena on several occasions, he was yet to let the first year touch him back.  There was a very particular reason for this though: the brunette would need time to explore and permission for every move he made. 

Meaning it was going to be a lot fucking riskier to call on that favour on the back of the Devil Bat truck. 

This is why Hiruma was in an extra good mood when the lights of Las Vegas appeared on the horizon.  They were almost there.  Demon had called him on it that night.

“ _You’re acting like a little kid at Christmas, Yoichi.  Well, a little you at least.”_ The blond merely raised an eyebrow and asked about the use of his given name. “ _We couldn’t come up with an address that suited you.  Not one that I could use anyway.  I’m not submissive like they are.  Now answer me: Are you really that hyped about finishing the Death March?”_

Anybody else would have listened to the question and heard the callousness and the underlying anger that together made up what Demon was.  But the Devil of Deimon wasn’t anybody else.  On top of that, Eyeshield had told him a lot about their coexistence and development, such as the fact that they were gaining access to emotions beyond that of their initial respective manifestations ( _read: Demon understood more than rage, Eyeshield more than resilience_ ).  All of that added up to the second year deciding that the barest trace of fear in Demon’s voice was _not,_ in fact, imaginary. 

The most volatile and dangerous persona was nervous that Hiruma was going to drop Sena like a hot potato once his options in bed partners opened up to more than the Deimon Devil Bats.

The quarterback wrapped his long arm around the brunette’s shoulders and nipped him on the ear, the way only Demon truly loved.  Turning to walk back to the truck, the blond casually tossed over his shoulder that they had yet to have any fun in an actual bed yet and he was pretty eager to try that out. 

“ _You’re such a shithead, Yoichi.  But that’s what we love the most about you._ ”  The shithead only cackled. 

They must have been a frightening sight for the Las Vegas pedestrians: covered from head to toe in sweat and dirt, collapsing from exhaustion in the street, yelling and cheering in their foreign language.  They probably looked like they had barely survived some natural disaster, smelled like it too. 

It was _fucking_ _hilarious_ when Doburoku gave his little heart warming speech only to find they had all passed out. _Kekeke…_

Hiruma would never admit to anyone that the moment he shut the door to his hotel room and laid eyes on the waiting mattress he was dead asleep.  What he would tell you though is that there is no rest for the wicked, which is why a certain running back was knocking on his door not two minutes after he woke himself back up.  He allowed the brunette into his room and quickly determined him to be the original Sena. 

“ _Umm… Sorry for barging in. I know I should be resting, but- this is probably too much to ask- please don’t shoot me-“_ The look on Hiruma’s face showed a combination of wondering why they weren’t passed this yet and wanting the kid to spit it the fuck out.  _“I-I couldn’t hear your breathing.  It felt wrong.  I-umm… I wanted to stay here… with you?”_ So that’s what he wanted.  Slowly, a grin slid onto the blond’s face.  Beckoning the boy forward with one hand, patting a spot on the bed with the other, the quarterback made sure the shrimp was comfortably settled, the door shut and locked before he finally responded that it was about time the captain called that favour back. 

The first year’s face heated up but he didn’t start freaking out, meaning he was expecting something like this to happen.  The sudden tenseness in his posture, however, spoke volumes about his confidence in his performance.  The blond crawled onto the sheets next to the boy, kissed him, bit his lip gently, and told him not to worry.  They would take this step by step.  _Now come here._

The upperclassman shifted them both so that he was leaning against the headboard, the brunette straddling his lap.  The kid was nervous so Hiruma would be nice, stroking his hair, whispering easy instructions to him.  _Kiss here, put that hand there, like this._   The blond was aware on some level that ‘gentle’ shouldn’t have even been in his vocabulary, but he had to be careful with Sena.  Only when the brunette was completely comfortable with his tasks would the blond be free to be rougher with him. 

It was slow going; the short boy was hesitant and kept stopping, but he eventually gained confidence, running his hands up and down his captain’s chest and back under his shirt before going for the pants.  Hiruma had one hand on the first year’s neck, thumb coming around as if to choke, the other resting on the smaller boy’s hips, both gripping a little tighter at the feel of smaller fingers around his arousal.  Kissing the blond under his jaw and nuzzling his neck was the kid’s signal that he could take anything his upperclassman threw at him now.  The quarterback rolled them over. 

Now pinning the pipsqueak to the mattress, the second year peppered his running back’s face and neck with kisses and light nips, careful to not leave marks.  His much bigger hands ran over and under cloth and up and down flesh.  Once the brunette was sufficiently red faced and panting did the devious blond slip his fingers underneath the boy’s waistband. 

Thinking back on it, Hiruma never had the chance to properly cherish the smaller player’s prized legs.  With that thought in mind, the captain made short work of both the pants and boxers in front of him.  The chibi was suddenly very shy.  Sitting back up on his knees and removing his shirt, the strategist made a comment about evening out the playing field before slanting his mouth back over shrimp’s, hands running up, down and between those beautiful limbs. 

When the blond sat back he had taken his cock out of Sena’s reach, so the brunette quickly rectified that situation, taking it further by beginning to tug off his upperclassman’s pants.  The way he saw it, just because they were showing roughly the same amount of skin, did not mean things were playing out fairly.  The second year chuckled and obliged the demand of the boy beneath him, removing the last of both his own clothing and the pipsqueak’s.  Drawing the smaller boy back into his lap, Hiruma wrapped one arm around the thin waist in front of him, pushing their two erections together and holding them there with his other hand. Manoeuvring the kid, his hand, and his hips, the blond created a friction that had Sena clinging to his much broader shoulders moaning desperately. 

“ _Hiru-Hiru… Ma-sa… aah… nnnn… c-can’t hold- mph! - on-“_ The brat’s voiced dissolved into a plethora of hisses, hums, and little squeals, eventually morphing into loud, drawn out groan as he had his completion.  The blond drew his face out from where it had burrowed in Sena’s hair to watch the flickering expressions and total bliss cross the little teen’s face and found his own orgasm rushing up that much faster from the sight.  He clutched his little lover closer to him as he came. 

Exhausted and gloriously sated, they both collapsed and the brunette curled up into his captain, as was his original intention.  He smiled lightly when a long fingered arm coiled its way around his thin shoulders and he knew from experience that arm would not let him go until it shook him awake the next morning.  It would do so at the exact time necessary for them both to shower, clean up ( _maybe fool around a bit more during said shower_ ), and for Sena to get back into his own room before anyone else ( _read: Anezaki_ ) noticed he was missing.

_It was time to earn some money. Look out Las Vegas, Hiruma Yoichi has come to town. YA-HA!_


	15. to Max Devil Power

Upon entrance to the casino, Hiruma immediately navigated his way to the Blackjack table.  Counting cards was a piece of cake for him and it had the added bonus of being within sight of the roulette stand that Sena and the monkey had taken up residence at.  The pair had been doing rather well by betting on black or red and it appeared that the running back had been the one making the decisions.  The blond figured Demon to be the gambler in Sena as he used his intuition and guts more than the other two sides.  Roulette was a game of luck and chance so Demon would be the most useful. 

Then the monkey bet all their earnings on the number 21 and completely lost.  _Typical moron._

They had to visit a few casinos to earn enough to both pay off the fucking drunk’s debt _and_ buy plane tickets back to Japan for them all.  In the end, the quarterback made the most ( _no surprises there_ ) but the small brunette also had a decent contribution.  He had stuck with the roulette tables but the logical Eyeshield had made Demon start betting half the winnings each time instead of all of them.  Just in case the monkey had some other stupid idea, they wouldn’t lose everything this time. 

At long last, it was time to go home.  The Fall Tournament was about to begin. 

As the semester kicked off, Hiruma started by getting Doburoku actually employed by the school; his salary would be transferred into the _amefuto_ club funds account ( _he owed the quarterback for paying off his debts, poor man_ ).  The blond also needed to get Taki set up to take ( _and pass_ ) the mid year entrance exam. 

Getting a recording of the fucking manager in the cheerleader’s outfit was a lovely little piece of blackmail.  _Thank you, Suzuna._

The practice that would determine the regular players commenced.  Everybody had improved immensely, but in the end, you took the best you could get and didn’t settle for anything less.  Yukimitsu took his loss gracefully and didn’t make a scene ( _now if only the fucking manager would stop being so emotional about it_ ). 

The team got to work on memorizing strategies and practicing formations and soon it was Saturday.  The Autumn Tournament started in 24 hours and the fucking fat ass turned tail and fled. 

Of course, he didn’t go far.  Kurita was a creature of habit, and Hiruma had known him for a few years now.  So, while everyone else was scouring local restaurants, bakeries, and football stadiums, the blond headed straight for the gym’s storage room.  The fatty had been nervous all week, so by now it would have reached a breaking point. 

Yep, the fat ass had ( _somehow_ ) managed to stuff himself inside the vaulting horse.  The whole thing was shaking from his nerves.  The quarterback shot at him for his whining and found the whole fiasco a waste of time and ammunition until the round shit in the box wanted to look at the T.V. in their old classroom.  The one that the Maoh Trio had signed when they promised to go for the Christmas Bowl. 

That was a lot more than three signatures.

It felt like the day they all crossed the do-or-die line all over again.  The captain was reminded that they were a team now, not just two athletes and a bunch of warm bodies.  They were the Devil Bats. 

The captain also wondered which persona signed Sena’s name ( _looked like fucking Harry Potter font_ ). 

After rounding up the others and dragging them all down to the Tokyo Stadium, the blond drove the point home to himself and the others that they were _a team_ and they were going _to win._

_They were going to win the Christmas Bowl._

Everyone was running high on energy the next day.  Deimon greeted her ( _cocky and over done_ ) opponents.  Munakata was a flat out ass.  The teams lined up ( _the fuck did Sakuraba do to his hair?_ ).  The board chairman of the American Football League gave his speech.  The games began.

_The fucking shrimp followed the idiot onto a bus into Nagano!_

Of course, the team practically fell apart at the seams when they found out their ace player wouldn’t be present for most of the opening match even with Zokugaku going to pick him up.   Hiruma had to do some serious rallying to keep them together, even with the help of Juumonji talking to his boys and Suzuna’s leading the American cheerleaders. 

Deimon still gave up that first touchdown because the line couldn’t hold it together.  This, in the end, didn’t matter because they took back that touchdown and had the pleasure of watching Munakata’s mechanical grin suffer a serious malfunction. _Kekeke…_

Just as Amino started viciously marking Monta, the star of the show made his entry.  The kid was knocked off Habashira’s bike so hard he flew ten feet in the air and should have broken his neck landing.  The efficiency in the way he touched the ground was all Eyeshield. 

As the play began again, Hiruma had them using the sweep manoeuvre and Sena obliterated Munakata. 

It was over in an instant and Amino didn’t stand a chance. 

The rest of the match carried on in a similar fashion until the final score amounted to 38 – 8 in Deimon’s favour. 

The next day, the blond had to blow up the monkey and the brat for plotting nonsense with regards to Musashi.  They seemed relatively unsurprised to find an underground weaponry hold on school property though, which showed that they at least recognized their captain for the complete lunatic that he was. 

The old man got them back on track and thinking about the tournament and Hiruma brought up the fact that the idiot still wasn’t an official Deimon student yet. 

As it turns out, Taki was a lot like Kurita; if American football is involved, he has a much higher success rate.  He barely passed the exam, but Hiruma didn’t have to lift a finger to get him into the school and on the team.

When told that their chances of beating the Yuuhi Guts were 99%, the idiots practically started celebrating right then and there.  Being used to being the underdog in any given situation, the quarterback quickly brought them all down a notch.  They hadn’t won yet. 

Game day kicked off with the pleasant surprise that all the major competition was playing on the same field.  Yuuhi’s captain, Atsumi, paid attention to his opponents, it turned out.  He knew the blond strategist was out to shake them up before he even acknowledged the second year’s presence. 

Hiruma could kind of respect him for that. 

However, the blond’s attention was quickly focused on Oujo’s performance in the first match of the day.  Demon also stuck his head out for the first time in a while.  The quarterback had forgotten that Demon had a weird fixation with tearing down strong opponents like Shin.  The moment he laid eyes on the linebacker he went quiet, a strange, almost predatory smile on his face. 

_How was nobody else noticing this!?_

Demon could pinpoint the differences between the Spear Tackle and the new and improved Trident Tackle with ease, even if he couldn’t articulate them.  As he stared at the linebacker and the linebacker stared back, Hiruma felt a possessive kind of irritation crawl up his spine and sink into his muscles.  He felt better when the brat refocused on the match against Yuuhi.

Except Yuuhi was sitting on the bench while random athletes came on to the field. 


	16. to The Real Body

One thing Hiruma never had to worry about at Deimon ( _not that it would have bothered him anyway_ ) was taking heat for a loser team damaging the school’s reputation ( _he was Hiruma Yoichi; he_ was _the reputation_ ).  Apparently the Yuuhi Guts were suffering from this very problem.  As a result, all of the players on the field were aces of the school’s other, more popular sports teams.  The blond shut down any complaining from the Devil Bats, by calling it out as the hypocrisy it was ( _read: Satake and Yamaoka were from the basketball team and Ishimaru from track.  If Yuuhi was cheating, then so was Deimon._ ) 

_Besides, substituting players is only effective if it actually makes the team stronger.  Kekeke…_

After massacring the extras, Yuuhi’s legitimate players finally got permission to do battle with Deimon, and the quarterback glimpsed Demon stirring in the back of Sena’s eyes.  He wanted a real opponent to destroy, and he was finally getting one. 

The rage persona was content to retreat after cutting down Atsumi completely, leaving the emotional Sena to look over the remains of the Yuuhi Guts.  The second year was just glad that the sight didn’t drive the kid into some kind of weird depression. 

Although, that may have been because he was so easily distracted by the following games between Seibu and Koigahama ( _whoever set that up was clearly a Seibu fan_ ) and Hashiratani and Kyoshin.

Nobody foresaw the level of kick ass Kyoshin brought to the tournament.  The moment a bunch of freshmen stepped on to the field, all of what made Hashiratani a powerful team proved completely worthless. 

_At the end of the day, somebody’s got to be the loser.  That’s just the way it works._

Even though Deimon was still a full match away from facing off with Kyoshin, Hiruma knew he would spend the next two weeks plotting ways to get past ( _more accurately under.  Seriously, that lot is fucking huge_ ) Poseidon, and he needed a fuckload of more information on them to even begin. 

Conversely, the Dokubari Scorpions barely registered in the blond’s manipulative mind, they would be so easily beaten.  

As he fired off orders at the fucking manager, the captain glimpsed the runt’s face take on a rather dazed feel as the monkey promptly told him that he never would have made it as a secretary.  _No shit._

The running back then grabbed his bag and high tailed it into some bushes upon sight of a reporter ( _kid was finally getting the idea_ ).There was just one little problem…

_Those bushes were currently occupied by the tallest line in the league._

At first it seemed nothing would come of it; Mizumachi was overly enthusiastic to a fault, but he appeared to mean well.  Of course, then he turned around and told Kakei that the player they had been looking for was here. 

_Shit._

Now, make no mistake; Hiruma was in no way intimidated by the open display of disdain and animosity from the Kyoshin linebacker, but he was worried about the damage this would do to the shorty’s psyche.  An entire third of the kid’s personality was constructed around this idea of Eyeshield 21 being a fictional character that the blond invented spur of the moment.  The fact that a person with the title actually exists may shatter that third and throw the other two personalities completely of kilter. 

The worst part about it would be that it was something that the captain himself couldn’t fix.  Sena had to figure this out by himself.  Whether or not the Eyeshield persona disintegrated or stood up that much stronger had to be his own prerogative. 

That didn’t stop _Demon_ from being pissed off. 

The strategist saw it coming as they were leaving the stadium for dinner: the clenched fists, the firmer steps, and the gleam in the eyes that was hidden from the others by the shield.  The blond snuck his ace player away just in time for him to explode. 

“ _Some warning, Yoichi! Some fucking warning!  That kind of shock almost killed the Original, and I can’t even find Eyeshield anymore!  I was gonna kill that fucker Yoichi, I really was!”_

The ranting carried on in a similar threatening fashion for a while until the brunette whipped off his helmet and made his leader look straight in his manic, enraged, and distraught gaze.  Seizing the blond by the collar, the third-turned-half of Sena demanded to know, “ _Why would you do this to us!?”_

It took everything Hiruma knew about the Sena Trio to calm Demon down.  He held the boy close and whispered things to him, things about why Hiruma used the title, things about how Hiruma wouldn’t change how he had done this because it probably would have changed them, things about how this wouldn’t matter in the long run because they were stronger than this. 

The blond knew he was forgiven when Demon told him to stop being cheesy and gave his upperclassman a kiss.

The pair quickly caught up to the rest of the team and by the time they all hit the restaurant, the original Sena had taken back over.  When asked by the shrimp, Hiruma acknowledged that he had always known about the ‘real’ Eyeshield 21 and gave Sena the nickname anyway.  The blond hoped that, wherever he was, the Eyeshield persona understood that doing so was a symbol of his captain’s faith in his ability. 

Beyond that, the quarterback made a point of not making a fuss out of the Kyoshin confrontation ( _especially with Ojou sharing the restaurant space.  Somebody’s got to keep that fucking Takami on his toes. Kekeke…_ ).  He was mildly irritated when he spotted the shorty outside, _alone,_ talking to Shin, but the blond said nothing about it as he figured it may be one of the best things for the brat right now.  At the end of the night, just as they all headed out, Hiruma caught the kid’s eye and grinned.  

Eyeshield grinned back. 


	17. to Iron Fist

The game against the Dokubari Scorpions started out interesting enough ( _and there was something flat out delicious about the kid wearing make up on command_ ).  That idiot Kanagushi was right about _amefuto_ being a head game, but he was dead wrong in thinking that he was the only one who knew the rules. 

It was quite entertaining, showing the lot of them how you really play the _amefuto_ head game.  _Kekeke…_

It wasn’t so entertaining watching Habashira Rui break down after Zokuto’s battle with Kyoshin, trying to figure out what was wrong with his training methods, why did they all give up part way, _what was the difference between himself and Hiruma that keeps the Devil Bats together where the Chameleons fall apart!?_

For once, the blond didn’t have the answer. 

After handing off the broken player to his manager ( _can’t shake the feeling that they’re closer than that.  Cousins, maybe?_ ), the Devil Bats’ captain started looking for ways to get some information on Kyoshin for next week’s match.  The easiest and most productive thing to do was spy, but how to go about it? He eventually discovered Kimidori Sports where Kyoshin would buy their shoes for astro turf.  After acquiring a part time job there for the next twenty four hours, Hiruma set about purchasing astro turf shoes for his own team. 

The owner, Kimidori-san, wasn’t too bright, so he didn’t question it when his new part-timer paid enough to buy over a dozen pairs of shoes all in cash.  He didn’t even bat an eye lash at said part-timer’s constant possession of some pretty heavy artillery. 

_And if the sight of that artillery warded off potential shoplifters, then that was just extra convenience._

At the end of the day though, it was Sena who had to deliver and conveniently spy on Kyoshin because they wouldn’t recognize him.  Sena also had to get over any remaining fears of Kakei.

The blond got a call from the shrimp later that night.  A call that did what very few things could:

Scared him. 

_“Hey Yoichi, it’s me.  I’m near the school.  Could you come out for a sec? I uhhh… I think I’m bleeding.  I’m not sure the blood’s mine, but I don’t know that all of it came from this guy.”_

On the one hand, it sounded like Demon just killed somebody, which was bad.  On the other hand, it also appeared he was hurt, which was about a million times worse.  The quarterback kept the kid on the phone as he grabbed a first aid kit and bolted over, listening closely as the brat determined that, yep, there was a pretty steady stream of blood coming from a gash on his head.  _Shit._

Finally arriving at his destination, Hiruma found the brat in question halfway down an alley cursing about what his mother’s reaction to all the blood on his clothes was going to be.  Upon noticing his captain, the brunette explained that the unconscious punk in the corner had tripped up the Original on his way home ( _ergo, the head wound_ ) and tried to mug him.  After that it was pretty much instinctual to throw Demon up as a shield.  As the blond cleaned the blood off the running back’s face and disinfected the gash ( _not nearly as bad as it looked, it’ll be practically invisible by morning_ ) he asked if the smaller teen had ever done this before.

 _“Nah, wasn’t really awake before you.  But out of all of us, running was mostly my thing.  Mind, Eyeshield didn’t exactly exist back then either, so it was really just me and the Original.  The Original’s thoughts were always the driving force, so I really just ran away, but today was different.  Today he let me out and I could decide not to run.  So I didn’t.”_ Demon looked over at the heap of out cold flesh. _“I wonder if he’s still alive over there.”_

Realizing that the boy wasn’t kidding, the quarterback got up and checked the would-be mugger’s pulse and assessed the damage.  Broken nose, bruises blossoming all over his face, arm bent at a funny angle, and the way he was curled up into himself suggested bruised, maybe broken ribs, but he would live. 

Turning back to Demon ( _who suggested leaving the punk right where he was_ ), Hiruma called in an anonymous tip to the cops so they would find him.  He then took the brunette back to the club house for a change of uniform.  The blond now understood why Eyeshield was so paranoid about keeping a spare.  The kid leaned into him as they walked. 

_“It’s still kinda hard to sleep without you, you know?  The Original is mostly fine because he’s home and he grew up this way, but Eyeshield and me?  It’s all we know.  You’re all we know.  It’s a pain in the ass sometimes, rolling over and finding you’re not there.”_

Hiruma tugged the boy into the clubhouse to get him cleaned up.  He hadn’t realized how much the two alter egos had developed due to his influence.  It made relative sense considering everything the blond had put the smaller boy through generally required the strength of mind that the original Sena just did not possess. 

Commenting on how Demon was unusually chatty tonight, the quarterback got the spare uniform out of his ace player’s locker.  He was promptly told that the rage persona was going to be as chatty as he damn well liked until the adrenaline wore off.  Recognizing that the smaller teen was upset about his lack of appropriate response, the second year made a casual observation that he hadn’t been sleeping all that great himself since they came back to Tokyo.  It just seemed to be extra cold at night in a way that had nothing to do with the season. 

Apparently satisfied, the brunette hung up the towel he had used to clean the blood off his neck on the drying rack. 

The blond took one look at the shit-eating grin on Demon’s face and knew the boy wasn’t going to lift a finger to undress himself.  Rolling his eyes, he dragged the boy forward by his collar and started undoing the buttons and shoving the shirt off the thin pair of shoulders.  After manually stripping the boy down to his skivvies, he almost expected the brat to jump him.  The brunette however seemed to be feeling the effects of the blood loss by now and was looking a little woozy.  A tad put out by the lack of action, Hiruma redressed the boy and asked about what he had learned today at Kyoshin. 

 _“That Kakei’s got tunnel vision, and Mizumachi, a big mouth.  They’re both assholes.”_ The running back paused for a second, head turned slightly to the side, as if listening to someone else speak.  _“Eyeshield says they don’t mean to be.”_

After hearing the story of Kakei and the ‘original’ Eyeshield 21 and Mizumachi’s comments about Komusubi, the blond took his ace home.  Practice tomorrow was going to be rougher than normal on kid due to tonight’s adventure and he needed some rest. 

Upon reaching the gate to the Kobayakawa household, a very drowsy looking Demon pulled his upperclassman down by his uniform tie for one of those rough not-kisses that Hiruma had come to affiliate with this side of the boy.  Gathering the brunette close to him, Hiruma tilted his head and thrust his tongue past plush lips, enticing the smaller boy to play.  After a few minutes the pair parted, the blond nipping lightly at aforementioned lips before releasing the boy and finally saying goodnight. 

After watching the boy make his way into the house, the strategist turned and walked off, grinning and feeling that life was really good right now. 

The next morning, Komusubi was missing. 


	18. to Rookie Ace

The fucking fatass was beside himself.  Of course, the bite-sized lineman was found by the end of the day along with an added bonus of getting to watch the three brothers beat the tar out of him, but the whole thing was a complete waste of valuable practice time _and_ lost them their drunken trainer.  _Fuck._

The day after was the trick play card test that Hiruma made everyone else write.  He was pleased to note that the brat passed with flying colours, which marginally made up for the fact that he had spent the day fooling around at a sumo tournament. 

The captain took one look at the giant, practically weapons grade firework that everyone agreed to not touch and knew that it would be set off at some point during the night, whether intentionally or otherwise.  He made sure to keep blackmail of all the local firefighters close at hand for the inevitable. 

They wound up setting the school roof on fire. 

Game day began and the blond bore witness to Mizumachi’s unintentional assholery.  The teen seemed unable to help but show off ( _but why did he feel the need to put on and strip out of a cheer uniform? Just why?_ ), jumping, flipping and hand standing the way he was.

In direct response, the quarterback set a crowd on the mini fat ass, who graciously obliged him by lifting about fifteen to twenty people over his head and holding them there. 

Oh, look, the drunkard’s back.  He brought a pig with him.  Somebody cut this guy off. 

The team and Komusubi in particular struggled on valiantly against Kyoshin’s attacks, but were largely unsuccessful until the mini-fat ass’ parents ( _they couldn’t be anybody else_ ) arrived carrying boxes of sake.

Doburoku was suddenly revived. 

But Komusubi-dad said something about delivery workers and arms and on the next play the tiny lineman taught himself the rip move.  Using the rip effectively against Mizumachi’s swim move took a few plays to figure out before it actually worked properly, but it did and the runt burst through. 

Only to be promptly flattened by Kakei. 

The three linebackers were all over 2m tall and were appropriately known as the ‘High Wave’.  They also had the added advantage of all three being able to perfectly utilise Kakei’s frightening arm techniques.  _And would the fucker lay off the ‘fake Eyeshield’ thing already!? Demon’s gonna have his head on a platter if he keeps that up!_

The first points went to Kyoshin.  As he devised and discarded various tactics to take back those points, Hiruma spotted the kid and the monkey attempting to plot.  Knowing the two worked on very similar wavelengths (at least Monta and Original Sena did), he pulled them into the Wishbone combination play, even though they had never practised it.  Hell, they had never even heard of it. 

As predicted though, they worked phenomenally well together, earning the team 20 yards and a first down.  They continued to use the Wishbone until Hiruma himself scored a touchdown.  At the end of the first half, the Devil Bat Ghost had made itself known, and one of the Hiroshi linebackers ( _the Atlantic Ocean one? Or was it the Pacific? It was the one with glasses_ ) had the shit scared out of him. 

The fucking blue eyes wasn’t just going to sit there and take it however, and so the first play of the second half wrapped up with him crushing the Devil Bat Ghost into the dirt.  The kid got back up from that tackle physically, but the blond was sure that a lot of his mental strength was left on the field to be trampled during the following plays.  It was, after all, the first time that move took a hit. 

And trampled it was as Kakei continued to pummel the kid until the Poseidon team was close enough to take a field goal. 

It was times like this that the fucking manager proved her worth to the team.  Almost as if she sensed that her precious baby Sena was in distress, all of her observational skills levelled up.  Of course, it was near impossible to get the message out to the team, but being Hiruma Yoichi had its advantages.  Including being able to interpret exceptionally terrible sign language. 

The Kyoshin safety kept moving in to block Deimon’s runs, so nobody ever prepared for a pass.  The fucking idiot Taki made his presence known on the gridiron and earned them seven yards. 

Of course, this got Mizumachi all fired up, so he had to open his big mouth.  Deimon already understood that Kyoshin’s third years had no more chances, every game was do or die for every team, _you are not that special you moron!_

It wasn’t until the blond lineman brought up the fact that Deimon had no third years that he started pissing people off.  The moment the words ‘next year’ left his lips, Sena of all people started yelling back.  And it wasn’t Demon or Eyeshield either ( _though it was easy to see from the boy’s stance and volume that all three were in agreement_ ), but legitimate Sena, yelling about there was no ‘next year’ for Deimon because all the second years could no longer play. 

They drove the point home by scoring another touchdown against Kyoshin.  Seven minutes left in the game and the score was 12 -10 to Deimon. 

But Kyoshin wasn’t quite ready to admit defeat yet.  Mizumachi left the line and stood back with Kakei and the Hiroshis.  The difficult ‘High Wave’ and become the indestructible ‘Poseidon’.  Blocking both runs and passes _and dammit, put a fucking cork in it Kakei, you’ve made your point repeatedly already!  Shut up!_

Taking back their lead, Posiedon managed put five points between themselves and Deimon with only two minutes left in the game.  No matter what kind of tricks he pulled, Hiruma couldn’t best the ‘Poseidon’ formation, and with eighteen seconds left on the clock, there was only one thing left to try. 

Sena needed to defeat Kakei in a one on one and score a touchdown. 

The boy was terrified and was in no state of mind to take on such a difficult opponent.  So the blond heaped the pressure onto the smaller teen’s shoulders until he crashed and Eyeshield came out.  Eyeshield, who still had a bone to pick with Kakei, went out with the promise of passing the linebacker. 

Pulling together everything he’s learned from America and everything he developed for the ten years of being an errand boy in a single instant, Eyeshield created the Devil Bat Hurricane out of the Ghost’s steps and a spinning move.  Kakei stood no chance and victory was assured.

That is, until Mizumachi decided he hadn’t given up yet. 

30cm away from the goal line, the running back was tackled.  Hiruma called a timeout to save them, and just in time to snatch up those last two seconds.  It was time for the trump card: the Devil Bat Dive. 

For a split second, it seemed Mizumachi thwarted them yet again, but Komusubi wasn’t having any of that.  His tackling the much taller player caused Sena’s balance to falter even further and the running back landed just next to the two linemen.  Neatly scoring a touchdown and bringing in an amazing comeback victory. 

Kakei admitted his closed-mindedness and the mini fat ass and Mizumachi made amends, agreeing to meet again next year. 

After sticking around to see the following matches, it quickly became clear that Deimon’s next opponent would be Seibu.  The most interesting thing learned that day, however, was that Seibu apparently had some secret trump card that they hadn’t let out yet. Something they were saving for Deimon.

Some kid called Kaitani Riku. 


	19. to Tokyo's Strongest Warriors

_Who is Kaitani Riku?_ A question that would be answered a lot quicker than anticipated. 

Hiruma didn’t think much of it when Anezaki got knocked over by some punk.  Assholes were everywhere, you learned to get used to them.  What caught his attention was when the punk got taken down by a kid no bigger than Sena. 

A kid who declared himself Sena’s big brother. 

The boy was introduced as the mysterious Kaitani Riku and, while not having blood relation to the Kobayakawa family, he addressed himself as ‘Sena’s big brother’ because he taught the brunette how to run.  The meeting with the short blond didn’t last long and wasn’t really that interesting but for some reason Eyeshield had come out again and was really uneasy.  The whole way home he was stressing about finding a counter to Riku’s run.  He was sitting away from everyone on the train, closer to where Hiruma was.  The quarterback was about to tell him to take a breather before his brain exploded when the smaller body seized up and the brunette seemed to have trouble breathing.  The strategist had only seen this once before but knew what was happening and quickly moved to hide the running back from view.  Eyeshield was trying to suppress Demon who wanted out and wanted out _now._  

Eyeshield relaxed knowing that the captain was around to control him.  The small form slumped a little before tensing back up again, only this time it was out of anger.  Demon looked at his upperclassman and quietly explained himself.

 _“He left us for dead, Yoichi.  He may not have done it on purpose, but he did.  We had two weeks where it seemed like everything was going to be okay, and then he left, and everything got So.  Much.  Worse.  The bastard thinks teaching The Original how to run solved all his problems the same way Mamori thinks her interference helped.  It didn’t.  It only aggravated the situation.”_ The boy’s lips twisted into a snarl, a malicious gleam appearing in his eye. _“And he dares to still call himself our big brother after all this time.”_

Hiruma made a comment about how they still call Anezaki ‘nee-chan’ even though she was the exact same as Riku, to which he responded that it was The Original who chose to call her that in the first place.  Riku decided that he would be Sena’s big brother.  On top of that, if the brunette ever stopped calling her ‘nee-chan’, then she would think something was especially wrong and intervene even further into the running back’s life. 

The quarterback discreetly gave the younger teen a little nip on the ear the way he loved to calm him down and get his focus back to the blond in front of him.  Demon gave him a look that said _I know what you’re trying to do, wise guy_ before burrowing into his captain’s side, allowing a long arm to wrap around his shoulders.  The brunette explained that he knew the best thing to do now was flatten Riku in the game and make him see that Sena wasn’t some little kid anymore, _but damn if he just really wanted to beat up the Gunmen running back._

The second year sympathised with him, and told him so, before informing him that tomorrow’s Athletics Day would be a great way to relieve some of the pent up aggression.  The underclassman smirked into Hiruma’s shirt and said he couldn’t wait. 

The next day everyone was running hard at practice before Athletics Day officially began.  They had a good flow going so the quarterback was irritated that they had to stop so soon.  That is, until he saw the team listings.  Quickly devising and explaining his new plan to the baldy and manager ( _who surprisingly played her part quite convincingly_ ) Hiruma decided that he wasn’t going to teach the kids the bump move.  He was going to let them discover it themselves. 

_And he was going to have a shitload of fun doing it!_

The Tug-O-War event was a lost cause given that all of Deimon’s linemen, more specifically Kurita, were on the red team, but the fucking monkey practically handed the Beanbag Toss to the white team.  The moron never failed to pull some stupid manoeuvre and attempting a slam dunk in the bean bag net was nothing if not stupid.  The events carried on in a similar fashion; the monkey fainting during the Folk Dance To Hell, Sena and Riku dominating the Three Legged Costume Race, Hiruma using a tank to ensure victory in the Comeback Marathon. 

The only event that truly mattered however was at the end: The Mock Cavalry Battle. 

The red team was smart enough to not shake the blond captain’s hand, but only the running back knew that Yukimitsu and Anezaki were in on the plot.  The kid had gotten to know his captain even better than the fucking fat ass did.

The small brunette looked at the cuffs around his wrists and up to the blond that put them there, and that blond knew there would be a lot of SM jabs coming for him when they were next alone.  But it was worth it when the first year figured out how to bump other players.  Ultimately, the event went to the red team, the baldy and the manager admitted to their lies and every football player on the red team agreed that Hiruma Yoichi was much preferred as an ally than an enemy. 

Anezaki disagreed when she found out that the conniving blond had captured all of her acting on film and was keeping it as blackmail material. 

Things started going downhill when Riku ( _really starting to despise that brat_ ) decided to confront Sena about being Eyeshield 21.  The kid openly admitted to it ( _Ishimaru practically had an aneurism_ ), only for the blond midget to jump down his throat about protecting himself instead of the ball. 

_Clearly he’s never battled Shin._

The first year seemed to take his ‘big brother’s’ misguided disappointment in stride and both shorties and the monkey stopped to listen to the quarterback get under Kid’s skin.

_Fuck it.  His name is Mushyanakoji Shien and that is what he will be called._

It appeared Shien also had a huge weak point, went by the name of Tetsuma Jo.  The man really was a two faced liar, pretending to be completely washed out when he could still fire up like that.  But he wasn’t the only Gunman who got fired up by Hiruma Yoichi. 

Riku had a bone to pick concerning his ‘little brother’s’ welfare.  The second year wondered how the midget in front of him went from challenging Sena to the football equivalent of a duel to the death to attempting to bully Hiruma into making sure the brunette didn’t get into any especially dangerous situations.  Before the platinum blond could get too far into his rant, the quarterback cut him off, saying that if Riku respected Sena even half as much as he suggested he did, he would cut that shit out right now. 

_“You don’t understand!  He’s timid and non-confrontational.  He’s been able to get away with it so far because nobody’s really taken Deimon seriously.  But this is the big leagues now.  The moment he steps on to the field with any of the Kanto Tournament monsters, he’s toast!  He’s not ready for that yet!”_

_Has this kid even MET Shin?_

Hiruma pointed out that he had a lot more experience with Sena on the gridiron than Riku did, and that Sena wasn’t the same as he was in middle school anymore.  It was Riku that didn’t understand.  The blond running back was stubborn about his point and refused to so much as listen to any of the second year’s arguments, insisting that Sena was not yet prepared  for the level of playing he would encounter in the coming games.  Eventually, Hiruma had enough and picked the skinny brat up by his collar.

“ _Now listen up, you little shit.  That kid is a lot more complicated and capable than you can even comprehend, so you shut the fuck up and keep your opinions to yourself.  You don’t have a clue what you’re dealing with, and you won’t until you’ve stared Demon in the eyes and seen all his rage staring back._ ”

Riku looked shocked and mildly confused at the mention of Demon, but he would learn.  He would learn quite well that one did _not_ underestimate Demon. 


	20. to Miraculous Hope

Of course, in the time it took for the Hiruma vs. Riku Showdown, the brat and the monkey had dug shit up again. The blond arrived back at the clubhouse to find the fucking fat ass in a panic about Monta dangling off Musashi’s truck and Sena chasing after it.  The quarterback had a pretty good idea where Musashi would be off to and thanked whoever might’ve been listening that it was close by.  The fucking old man never checked his rear view mirror, he wouldn’t know about his would-be hijackers until he stopped the truck.  Sure enough, the three of them stood in the hospital parking lot yelling at each other, easily heard by Hiruma’s sharp ears from the corner he hid behind half a block away. 

The blond already knew that the ex-kicker would kill to play with the Devil Bats again.  But it was still nice to hear said ex-kicker say it himself.  This seemed to satisfy the brunette running back, who later would pacify the receiver.  If there was something that Kobayakawa Sena ( _all three of him_ ) had in buckets, it was faith. 

But faith can only take a person so far. 

The quarterback found him alone in the locker room after practice one night, changed, packed, and ready to leave for home.  Except he was just sitting there, staring thoughtfully at the green eye shield attached to his helmet, a faint expression of concern on his face.  By now the blond could tell which Sena was which in a half-second glance, and sitting in front of him was Eyeshield.  This meant that something was very wrong because Eyeshield did _not_ get concerned. 

When prodded, the running back brought up his confrontation with Musashi.  Nine times out of ten Eyeshield takes over during such conversations ( _the tenth time being when Demon does it_ ) because The Original can barely think the word ‘confrontation’ much less have one.  The blond raised an eyebrow and asked what the problem was.  If Eyeshield was running interference then it was proof he was still necessary to Sena’s existence. 

 _“But that’s exactly the problem Hiruma-taicho!  I was ready to come out and defend The Original.  I was happy to do so! But I_ didn’t _!  He didn’t need me to, he did it all himself.  I was… I was unnecessary.”_ The concern on the brunette’s face had morphed into obvious fear, and Hiruma’s limbs moved to embrace and comfort the smaller player before his mind had even fully processed the words that were spoken.  As the shaking brunette burrowed his head into his captain’s chest, clasping his shirt, a long-fingered hand stroked his hair.  Hiruma sighed through his nose, forcing himself to admit out loud that he knew something like this would happen eventually. 

Eyeshield jerked back to look the blond in the eye, betrayal written all over his face.  The strategist only held him tighter and told him not to fear.  When he said that running interference meant the persona was necessary to Sena, he meant _as a separate existence._   If Sena was drawing upon Eyeshield’s strength on his own, then the persona was becoming necessary on a whole different level. 

 _“You are not being cut off from the original Sena, you are integrating with him.”_   When asked if that was like dying, Hiruma firmly said _no, not even close_ , that it wasn’t even like going to sleep.  If anything, it will be like waking up after being sick for a week and feeling like new person; stronger, healthier, ready to take whatever life will throw at you next.  It wouldn’t be right way either, it could be weeks before the persona noticed the original do anything like this again.  Eyeshield seemed comforted by these facts, and rested his head comfortably on his captain’s shoulder, small body finally relaxing into the arms that held him.  Smiling slightly, the brunette asked how the blond knew all this.  Smiling back, said blond said he read up on it back when first became aware of Sena having more than one personality.  The kid giggled and the pair disentangled themselves, the shorty turning to leave.  As he opened the door, he looked back briefly. 

 _“Will you miss me when I’m gone, Hiruma-taicho?”_  

The blond promptly crossed the clubhouse, gathered up the brunette and kissed him soft and slow before replying.  The blond explained that he won’t need to miss the persona because it will still be there, just meshed together with the original Sena. The running back smiled, thanked his captain for the reassurance and headed home. 

Hiruma waited for his ace player to be out of sight before casually strolling over to the bushes near the fence and swiftly yanking out the little eavesdropper hiding in them. 

Suzuna squawked and flailed before the blond set her back on her feet and she looked determinedly at the ground.  From the blush on her face, she saw Sena get his little goodbye kiss, but from this distance she couldn’t have heard what had been said, especially inside the clubhouse.  Deciding to be on the safe side, the second year asked the girl what she learned today and was pleased with the answer of Sena not being as available as he seemed.  When she asked if ‘Mamo-nee’ ( _really? What was it with this woman and being people’s older sister?_ ) knew about his relationship with Sena, he just laughed.   Suzuna blinked before realizing _yeah, stupid question._ As she skated away she yelled over her shoulder that she saw nothing and the blond strategist shook his head, still chuckling, and ducked back into the clubhouse.

It was going to be fine.  Sena merging with at least one of his personalities was a good thing; it meant he was getting stronger mentally and emotionally.  The cheerleader wouldn’t gossip needlessly, but she was probably going to let Sena know that she was aware of his relationship.  This was good in that the kid had a friend he could be open with and would support him ( _homophobia is a terrible thing_ ). 

For now they just had to focus on the game against Seibu and crushing that little Riku brat. 


	21. to The True Deimon DevilBats

Game day dawned bright and clear.  Hiruma could see both Eyeshield and Demon stirring in Sena’s eyes, but they seemed content to stay beneath the surface for now. 

Until, that is, Riku scored a kickoff-return touchdown.  Then Demon surged to the surface to take one back.  Hiruma figured he would, this match was personal for all parts of the Sena Trio.  Hiruma also figured it must have felt pretty damn good when Demon stopped Riku dead in his tracks the following play.

Of course, this was where the other key part of Seibu’s offence came into play.  Cheers of ‘ _Quick-Draw Kid! Quick-Draw Kid!_ ’ rose from the stands as the Gunmen set up their beloved Shotgun formation.  The blond noted that the Seibu quarterback was a lot like Shin in that both of them refused to take his bait.  _Disappointing…_

Not that it mattered; the Devil of Deimon fully intended to blitz his opponent anyway.  Of course Shien managed to annoy said devil _again_ when he took his already incredible 0.2 second throw, speeded it up even further and still complete the pass ( _and then had the balls to call it a fluke_ ). 

Hiruma hated that guy sometimes. 

Ever one for psychological warfare, the blond wasted no time telling off the Gunman for essentially flushing every strategy the Devil Bats had down the drain.  While he seemed initially startled by said strategies poofing out of thin air ( _“Where was he holding those?” Wouldn’t you like to know, Sena. Kekeke…_ ) Shien countered by claiming that everything about Hiruma Yoichi, the weapons, cards, hair, etc. was all intended to terrify an opponent and put the blond at a psychological advantage.  The cowboy even claimed to have figured out the _“method to your mind games”._

Hiruma _really_ hated that guy sometimes. 

That guy was partially right though, nothing to be done about that.  The only thing the blond could do now was prove that just because one had an idea how Hiruma Yoichi played mind games, did not mean one could _beat_ Hiruma Yoichi at those mind games.  Besides, thinking he had one-upped the Deimon captain might lull the cowboy into a false sense of security. 

However, the blond knew all too well that a good quarterback was useless without a receiver.  And while the Heart Bump worked well on every other player, it seemed the monkey was going to have some trouble with Seibu’s ‘Iron Horse’.  They lost a touchdown but the cunning quarterback wasn’t entirely worried about that though. 

Just as Deimon was first and foremost an offensive team, Monta was first and foremost a receiver. 

And he proved it too, earning the Devil Bats another first down.  The next attack was lost because Seibu’s actual team captain ( _some third year on the line_ ) thought he was the shit by mixing in some brawling moves, taking brother fish lips by surprise.  That was swiftly put an end to with the brothers displaying some brawling moves of their own and shutting down the third year, allowing Sena to break through. 

Unfortunately, Riku not only stopped him, but took the ball back and then lectured the Deimon running back. _Who does this brat think he is? Did he actually just say that Sena was pathetic?_   While Hiruma had to admit, the short blond was right in his advice, the strategist knew why the brunette player reacted the way he did: the last person to run at him with such speed was Shin Seijuro and one does not simply forget how much the Spear Tackle hurts. 

Things went downhill from there.  As Seibu scored two more touchdowns, it became evident that there was nothing Monta could do to stop the human train that was Tetsuma, but even worse, Hiruma himself had to concede defeat to Shien as a quarterback.  It wasn’t even halftime and there was a 20 point difference.  It appeared that Deimon had lost this battle. 

As if to rub salt in the wound, for some reason the moron Sasaki Koutarou stole the microphone from the announcers and started screaming for Musashi to get his ass out on the field and help his team.  Almost like they were reinforcing his point, Seibu scored a field goal.  The fucking fat ass started crying.  Last second of the first half, and 45 yards to the goal line.  If Hiruma actually believed in luck or fate, he’d think that both were mocking him.  This was exactly the kick that Musashi was about to do before his dad collapsed a year and a half ago. 

But the team didn’t break down just yet.  Sena stood up from where he had just been gang tackled and reminded his team that if there was absolutely zero chance of victory, the captain would walk off the field, pack up, and go home.  As long as Hiruma was still here, then Sena at least would keep playing like they were going to win.   The blond heard a truck drive up, the door slam, turned to see who _and couldn’t fucking believe it._

Their saviour had come.  He was 13 297 hours and 49 minutes late, but he had come. 

Once the fatty stopped crying again, they set up the line and let Musashi do what he did best.  The look of utter shock and disbelief on Shien’s face as the ball sailed over the goal posts was nothing short of brilliant.  Hiruma could vaguely hear Sasaki freaking out fan boyishly in the stands.  Kurita was so happy he hugged the front of Musashi’s truck, crushing it to pieces, and the blond briefly entertained the notion that he did it on purpose so that Musashi couldn’t change his mind. 

The strategist sat down on the bench, mentally flipping through his now numerous options, taking no notice of the shenanigans going on around him.  They had a kicker again.  He could feel his lips stretch into his usual terrifying grin.  Not just a kicker, they had _Musashi_ again.  He stood back up and walked over to his team. 

It was time to counter attack.


	22. to The Masked Man

Demon was awake again, but not because of Riku.  He seemed a little irritated at something which made putting him behind Kurita for the Blast a smart move in more ways than one.  As much as Hiruma had come to like Demon, no amount of mental or emotional progress could make the second year forget that Demon was nothing but anger at his core.  It was only mildly relieving that, as the original Sena began to tap into the emotions that made up his other personas and vice versa, Demon was becoming easier to handle. 

If Demon was still roiling around on the surface of Sena’s consciousness after the game, the blond would ask.  Right now, they were tearing up the field. 

_…You-nii? Suzuna has the weirdest ideas sometimes…_

Once it seemed Demon had mellowed out back into Sena, the quarterback had him fake a Devil Bat Dive and threw a long pass to Monta.  Hiruma put enough force into that throw to leave his own hand steaming, but the monkey still caught it seamlessly, scoring another touchdown.  The fucking old man put the ball through the posts ( _barely, but he did_ ) and it was time for the next kickoff.  Musashi’s first kickoff on this team.  He didn’t disappoint. 

Sena just barely lost the ball to Riku, and at first he seemed a little shaken by how close they were in speed, but he calmed back down the instant he saw that they were practically in Seibu’s end zone.  The Seibu coach immediately called a timeout. 

When Seibu seemed to come to a decision, Hiruma was once again disappointed in their behaviour.  Instead of using their best attack, the Shotgun, which would have put Shien in a more dangerous position to lose points, they sacrificed their playing style for a run.  Judging by Shien asking Hiruma his opinion on the setup ( _which was happily given, fuckers were doing shit wrong_ ) the cowboy too was disappointed. 

Deimon of course got the safety, which was swiftly followed by a field goal.  The gap had shrunk to eight points. 

Then Riku once again blew past Sena and scored a touchdown. 

It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if the damn brat would just stop lecturing the brunette every single time, stopped reminding him _hey, I made you, you can’t hope to keep up with me_ , stopped looking down on the player he kept claiming to respect, stopped-

Hiruma realized he was actually pointing his gun at the Seibu running back, preparing to fire.  He quickly put it down and moved on. 

On the plus side, it seemed Eyeshield too had had enough of Riku’s bull shit, because both he and Demon were pushing the small brunette body, gunning for the win.  The second year smirked and used the idiot to score a touchdown in the meantime.  From that point until there were only three minutes left on the clock, it seemed that both sides had given up on defense altogether.  Giving up points then stealing them back.  Once they arrived at those last three minutes, there was a nine point difference, and Hiruma’s plan had almost come to fruition.

Shien would pass to Tetsuma, there was never any question about that, and from the fucking manager’s data the pass route would be Hitch.  There was a slight panic over the shitty cowboy passing underhand ( _speeding it up even further_ ) but the fucking monkey never failed a catch.  Even when what he was catching was not the ball, but his opponent’s fingers.  After he knocked it away, Deimon’s ace running back scooped it up and took off.  Hiruma was a little busy at the time, but he was sure it was Eyeshield.  He had the ball and was running full speed towards-

_Fucking Riku._

It seemed Eyeshield was going to make the logical choice: run up behind Kurita, earning eight or so more yards before getting tackled.  But then Demon intervened and the two running backs were slamming full on into each other.  A Devil Bat Ghost later and Riku is on the ground and Demon is screaming his victory from the end zone. 

What was even better was the look in the blond running back’s eyes as he stood back up.  It took almost the entire fucking game but Riku finally met Demon.

With Musashi’s kick, the gap closed to two points.  The down side? There was only one minute left, it was Seibu’s offence, and they were just killing time.  It was time for a desperation tactic: an onside kick.

In response to Deimon’s desperation, Seibu sent out all of its best players, regardless of offence or defence.  The old man kicked and incited an all out brawl.  It was a mess, bodies everywhere, pushing and pulling, scrambling for the ball.  In the end, of course it came down to the two miracle receivers.  At first they both had the ball, then Monta had the ball, and Tetsuma hit the ground and the ref’s hand was in the air. 

Tetsuma had fallen before Monta had taken the ball.  It was Seibu’s offence and there was no time left. 

Deimon _… had lost._

(AN/ I really wanted to end it there but I was like, _no, that’s mean_ )

If Hiruma had foreseen the monkey having a mental breakdown in front of the ref, he wouldn’t have withheld that the losers of the two semi-final matches compete in a consolation match, the winner of which goes on to compete in the Kantou Tournament. 

As it is, thank mother fucking God, or Satan, or _whoever_ for Tetsuma Jo and his knee tackle. 

If the monkey had continued for much longer, the ref would have suspended him from the next game, and Deimon definitely would have bit the dust.  The blond made sure the monkey understood the severity of his crime by hailing numerous bullets and profanities on his ass. 

The two teams bowed to each other and the spectators left the stands.  Of fucking course Riku would have something to say to Sena.  While everybody else was busy dealing with their own crap, the blond quarterback hung back to listen and make sure Demon didn’t make a mess. 

At firsts it seemed that the Original Sena was just going to smile and nod and forget the conversation later but just as Riku went to walk away, he heard Demon speak. 

 _“You fucking bastard.  How long are you going to continue to look down on us?  We just kicked your ass and you still seem to think we need your approval.  I’d tear you apart, but Shin is already going to do that for me.  You are not our ‘master’ or ‘big brother’, so get off your fucking high horse, ‘cause the only person that can push us around is Yoichi and only ‘cause we like him.  And one more thing,”_ A shiver ran up Sena’s spine before his shoulders realigned and it was Eyeshield talking. _“The eye shield is not entirely a mask.  It is my face.  Hiruma-taicho gave it to us, and we will not take it off until he says we can.”_  

The blond captain decided to intervene at that point because Riku was starting to look very freaked out and we couldn’t have him running his mouth off, now could we?  So he tapped the brunette on the shoulder, told him Monta was looking for him, and after he ran off turned to the shorter blond.  The first thing the quarterback did was congratulate Riku on being the second person ever to discover the second and third Senas, Demon and Eyeshield respectively.  He then made clear that the ‘original’ Sena, that everybody knew, was almost completely unaware of his alternates.  When the brat started stuttering something about getting Sena help, Hiruma pointed out that making the brunette forcibly face his other two personas was probably the most harmful thing that could be done.  The best thing Riku could do now was pretend everything was normal with Sena.

As the second year turned to leave, Riku asked to know one more thing.  “ _Sena – er, Demon? Yeah, Demon – Demon said something about this person Yoichi, how he is the only one who can handle them, and that they like him.  Who is he?_ ”  Hiruma laughed as he walked away.

_“Yoichi is my given name.”_


	23. to Long Swords Of Wind

While Hiruma and Riku were having their little _mano el mano (which ended with Riku looking absolutely flabbergasted, and attempting to stutter out some kind of coherent response),_ it seemed that the fucking fat ass finally realized that the Christmas Bowl was still within reach.  He was so happy he ran around looking to hug people, but even the mini fat ass was running away after that stunt with Musashi’s truck.

Such shenanigans led them to discovering another Eyeshield 21.  One capable of knocking Kurita flat on his back. 

This new Eyeshield, who was a tight end and not a running back and so shouldn’t be an Eyeshield at all, was none other than the Bando Spiders’ Akaba Hayato, the previous year’s MVP.  Akaba who, for reasons unknown, had been benched for the entire Fall Tournament thus far. 

Therefore nobody was surprised when Ojou beat out Bando in their match, but it seemed the Spiders had learned the tricky blocking technique that Akaba had used against Kurita.  What was worse was since Akaba had introduced himself as another Eyeshield to Sena it meant that he was definitely going to play in the consolation match with Deimon. 

Of course, the question obviously echoing through Sena’s multiple minds was whether or not Akaba was the ‘real’ Eyeshield 21.  Of course, the fucking monkey caught wind of this and had the idea to go find Kakei and ask him.  The blond was mildly grateful that Suzuna immediately tagged along with the pair of them, knowing that if shit hit the fan in whatever way she’d promptly call him. 

Later, while he was reviewing videos of Akaba from last year, she would let him know that she and the boys may have gotten involved in an incident that tore down the wall between the male and female sides of a local public bath. 

After the blond got off the phone, the fucking old man raised an eyebrow and asked since when did Hiruma keep such a tight leash on any of his players? Had anyone else asked ( _even the fat ass, who was out getting snacks_ ), the strategist would have told them to mind their own fucking business but this was Musashi who might just understand.  And because he was Musashi, he did understand that when Hiruma said _this one’s special_ he wasn’t talking about football, or how the kid seemed to go from happy to angry to calm for no apparent reason ( _Musashi was starting to think bipolar, but that didn’t quite fit_ ), Hiruma was referring to something else entirely.  Something much deeper. 

So instead of making a big deal about it ( _and it_ was _a big deal_ ), he just snorted, leaned back in his chair, and said that if the blond never gave the kid any breathing room, he’d eventually suffocate.  Said blond laughed. 

As usual, the sheer amount of exhaustion-inducing practice made the week between games go by quickly.  The Sena Trio seemed to be a little distant with the blond, which unsettled him a bit, but Hiruma could never find the opportunity to approach him about it.  Not even the day before the game after everyone else had gone home and it was only them two in the locker room.  He turned to the brunette ( _Eyeshield this time_ ), opened his mouth, but before he could even get a word out the running back held up his hand.

 _“Tomorrow, Hiruma-taicho, after the game.  Dealing with this now will just distract us.”_ He abruptly turned back to the original Sena. “ _Ah, but there is something I decided.  They’re introducing the players individually tomorrow, and I was thinking… I want to go out as Kobayakawa Sena.  So, you might get in trouble with Mamori-neechan._ ”

Laughing, the captain said he’d take care of her, as long as Sena gave her a little heads up before they announced him.  Smiling and thanking his upperclassman, the boy scurried home. 

Hiruma shook his head, smiling ruefully.  Tomorrow, huh? Well, at least there was going to be some kind of resolution to whatever this problem was.  With that in mind, the strategist also went home.

Like he promised, Anezaki had to stop crying once she realized that she had been announced too ( _along with her special creampuff eating skills_ ).  Sena seemed pleased that she didn’t make that much of a fuss about it. 

Also as expected, Akaba and the Spiders proved to be a huge pain in the ass with their little ‘Spider Web’ scheme.  Preventing Deimon from so much as touching the ball was about as effective as you could get when sealing an offensive-style team.  Adding in their Spider Poison blocking technique and you got a whole lot of trouble for the Devil Bats.  Once Bando scored both a field goal and touchdown, Hiruma decided it was time to mix it up a little. 

The blond himself would block for Sena.

Hiruma knew the theory behind Akaba’s block and how to counter it, but could only hold off the red head for an instant longer than any other player because Akaba was just physically stronger than him.  Good thing that one instant was all Sena needed. 

Next thing anybody knew, the brunette was tearing up the field with ball before skidding to a halt in the end zone.  His first touchdown as Kobayakawa Sena.

Not to be outdone, Musashi managed to score his try-for-point kick even with Akaba smashing through the line in front of him. 

_Watching Musashi taunt Akaba after said kick was stupidly hilarious!_

Sasaki Koutarou is an idiot of astronomical proportions.  Not even Deimon’s resident idiot is dumb enough to burn one his team’s three timeouts just to tell the opponent a tragic tale of traitorous upperclassmen.  If he was attempting to inspire pity from Deimon, he failed miserably. 

Akaba made up for Koutarou’s stupidity in the next few plays ( _the pair complimented each other in weird way_ ) by using Run Force to manipulate Sena and score a touchdown.  This brought out Demon’s competitiveness, allowing him to throw Koutarou off during the last play of the first half. 

Things didn’t exactly improve in the beginning of the second half, what with the wind cutting off Hiruma’s passes, but not at all affecting Koutarou’s kicks, and Akaba successfully employing Run Force against Sena.  The score quickly widened to 20-7 in Bando’s favour. 

Then the small brunette asked to run the same play that just failed a second time.  Of course, it was immediately apparent that what he was proposing to do was probably beyond human limits and everybody promptly shot him down.  Everyone except Hiruma ( _even though he laughed his head off at the suggestion_ ), who would probably always run a play suggested by the shorty, purely because said shorty only ever suggested plays that a) mostly depended on his own skill and b) he believed would work.

So the captain said they would try it, again and again until it worked. 


	24. to The Successor

Sena’s plan was essentially getting through the place where Akaba was waiting for him, _before_ Akaba could be there to wait for him.  Unfortunately he was at a disadvantage as the Bando ace was no longer bothering to watch for any pass plays and could therefore move just that much sooner. 

Hiruma decided to fix that.  After all, not even the weather could stop the Devil of Deimon from getting what he wanted. 

So when the Spiders decided that Monta running forward was a fake, they got severely burned by the blond’s own Devil Laser Bullet and the monkey scored a touchdown. 

Now Akaba seemed to be under the impression that the Devil Bats went with a pass because they believed that Sena was simply incapable of defeating the tight end and that just wasn’t true.  So Hiruma said it loud and clear so that there was no mistake.

“ _Get this Tokyo MVP, ‘Kobayakawa Sena’ will defeat you._ ”

The red head turned to Sena to taunt back but the brunette abruptly started apologizing for borrowing the name of the apparently ‘real’ Eyeshield 21 before it was explained to him that the title of ‘Eyeshield 21’ was a Notre Dame tradition, given to the ace running back of every generation.  Anyone could wear it as long as they were willing to defend it.  As it was, Akaba had never been to Notre Dame and had only started wearing the number that season ( _and wasn’t a fucking running back_ ). 

The blond didn’t have to see the shrimp’s face to know that it said _then why did you force such a title on a first year who knew nothing about football!?_

The clock had started ticking into the last ten minutes of the game and Deimon was trailing by six- oh, now it was nine points, fucking Koutarou.  Not that it mattered when Musashi promptly took those three points back with the same fifty-yard kick that Koutarou had missed before.  The only problem was that Taki seemed to be struggling with his self-esteem ( _read: rapidly deflating ego_ ) after being continuously flattened by Akaba. 

Musashi fixed that too with a verbal kick in the pants.  The idiot realized that God didn’t bless him with any special skill or talent so, like a true Devil Bat, he decided to spit in God’s face and succeed anyway. _Kekeke…_

With the time down to the last minute and a half, and Bando wasting time, things weren’t looking too good.  Koutarou decided to try and hammer down the last nail in Deimon’s coffin by kicking the ball all the way down near Deimon’s end zone.

Unfortunately, that was where Sena was waiting to receive said precision perfect kick.  Even from a distance, it was obviously Demon.

Hiruma briefly wondered why Demon and not Eyeshield ( _considering it was Eyeshield’s identity that was technically in question_ ) when he realized that only Demon could push the small body to its limits and the past them.  Dodging and cutting around obstacle after obstacle all while maintaining that 4.2 second speed of light run from the one end of the field all the way into the opposing end zone. It was the most glorious touchdown that the blond had ever seen and he wanted to kiss the brunette right there on the field in front of everybody.

But he figured one drastic realization was enough for one day for the fucking manager.  _Kekeke…_

With the old man’s kick, Deimon took the lead 24-23 and the captain put his ace on the bench because he was clearly dizzy with exhaustion ( _how had he not straight up fainted?_ ). 

Bando struggled, but could not make up the points in time.  The Devil Bats won and were going to the Kantou tournament. 

As the two teams left the field, Akaba gracefully accepted his defeat and returned the eye shield to Sena.  The brunette also received verbal encouragement from Riku and some kind of intense ‘stare of approval’ from Shin, but Hiruma wouldn’t know about any of this until later because right now the blond was teaching the celebrating Devil Bats what a _real_ water party was like and the kid was finally collapsing onto Suzuna’s shoulder, dead asleep. 

_The picture of said kid waking up to being near drowned by Hiruma was forevermore pasted to the clubroom wall.  Kekeke…_

As said captain was taping said picture to the wall, he heard said kid come in through the door.  Eyeshield had stopped by and was smiling at the blond.

It wasn’t a smile that Hiruma liked.  Not at all.  It was as sad as the voice that came with it.

 _“Not once did I come out during the last game.  The Original did it almost all on his own, excepting the one time Demon helped him.  I as a separate existence am no longer necessary and will of course step aside.”_ There were tears in those too-big eyes. _“I just wanted to say goodbye first.”_

The blond didn’t hesitate to gather up the brunette in his arms and kiss him, slow but hard, like he was trying to inhale some piece of the smaller teen and keep it safe.  As they parted, Hiruma heard a faintly whispered _thank you, Hiruma-taicho_ before the small body shuddered and suddenly his arms were full of confused and slightly frantic Sena who didn’t know why they were hugging so close or why he was crying or _why did it feel so much like he just lost something very important?_

The strategist didn’t know the proper way to answer all these questions, so he just kissed the boy again, softer this time, to stop his panicking and told him to relax because he hasn’t lost anything.  He just grew up a little, and yes sometimes that hurts a little, but it’s worth it in the end.  Sena looked up at the blond with nothing but that unyielding faith in his eyes before pressing his face into the quarterback’s chest and staying there. 

Hiruma let him. 


	25. to Interview 8

The blond was pleased to see the melancholy begin to wear off the first year in the passing days, especially after the awards ceremony where said first year took one of the two Best Running Back awards along with Riku. The fat ass took one of the five Best Offensive Lineman awards and Hiruma was oddly proud to see that Habashira had managed to snatch up a Best Linebacker from the Ojou dominated Defensive Best Eleven.  Shin easily took one of the other Best Linebacker awards ( _the third one going to Kakei_ ) in addition to becoming the new Tokyo MVP. 

In the end, Hiruma didn’t mind giving up Best Quarterback to Shien.  After all, it wasn’t like their battle was _over._ There was still the Kantou Tournament to prepare for. 

The team was given a brief reprieve from training between the awards ceremony and the lottery drawing to relax a little.  During said reprieve many interesting things happened between the Devil and his ace. 

Hiruma was officially introduced to Sena’s parents as team captain, upperclassman, and friend.  Mihae absolutely loved him, and the blond had a feeling that as long as she did, Shuma would too.  She let the boys go up to Sena’s room only after requesting that the boy’s door remain open at all times ( _which hadn’t ever happened before_ ) and fixing the blond with a ‘look’ that made him think _yes, a mother_ always _knows._

The brunette was also invited over to his captain’s apartment for the first time.  It was a simple two-room place which seemed to surprise the kid ( _he said something about towers, broken windows, and lightning_ ) but the whole evening seemed to go over pretty well.  Of course, the blond wasn’t sure he wanted to know _how_ Demon had managed to spike his drink with the tiniest bit of aphrodisiac without said blond’s notice, but the following activities made up for Mihae making them leave the bedroom door open. 

Before long though, it was time for the Kantou Tournament lottery.  Of course, no kind of relationship on earth would save Sena from being late to the meeting point ( _both he and the monkey suffered death by bazooka_ ) but everyone was too excited for the tournament to care.  After all, the lottery itself was a gathering of all the best players in the Kantou area. 

The lottery started almost immediately after Deimon arrived ( _the fat ass was still nervously greeting his Taiyou counterpart, Banba_ ) and first up was Tokyo 2nd Place, Seibu.  Riku drew the mini football with the number two on it, putting them in Block A.  While the kids got all excited about this could possibly mean ( _which was nothing right now_ ), Hiruma was almost instantly suspicious of the player who drew for the SIC (Saitama, Ibaraki, Chiba) District representative, Hakushuu.  The teen had a slick air about him, and had managed to take his numbered ball all the way back to his table without anyone asking what number he drew. 

And then he approached Sena about trading places on the board. 

Of course, as the entire team had just been congratulating the brat on drawing a number in Block B, number five, all of Deimon rejected this idea and the Hakushuu student hastily backtracked.  What was interesting was, the moment Ojou drew a slot in the same Block B as Deimon, Hakushuu told Sena to forget the idea and promptly turned in his number. 

Upon return, Hakushuu introduced himself as Marco, the Suave and Dangerous Italian Man and quarterback for the Hakushuu Dinosaurs.  He offered both Sena and Monta colas as he made small talk about his actual name, Maruko Reiji, sounding too girly ( _both kids had hung out with Hiruma for far too long to drink anything given to them by such a shady individual though. Kekeke…_ )

Their conversation was cut short by the announcing of the Kanagawa representing and nine-time regional champions, the Shinryuuji Naga. 

_Please, please, please let the glint of recognition in Agon’s eyes not be directed at Sena.  Please._

Nope, Agon and Sena had met before and Agon clearly had not forgotten.  _Fucking dammit!_

So the fucking dreads subtly pitched his numbered ball at kid’s eye with enough force to smash the cola bottle in Marco’s hand, which it did once Sena dodged.  To make matters even more of a mess, the numbered ball that nearly blinded his ace was number six. 

Deimon’s first match was against the undefeated Shinryuuji Nagas.  _Against Agon._

And it became even more of a disaster because, as Agon once again weaseled his way out of trouble ( _again_ ), Demon had surfaced.  The only good thing about this situation was that everybody was so busy panicking about their first match, that everybody missed the alternate persona.  Needless to say, the team was suddenly much too restless to sit still for the rest of the lottery.  They left quickly and the blond got Demon to explain how Agon knew him. 

 _“It was back during the Spring Tournament, before I was rational.  Do you remember taking us to the finals?  I can’t really remember why Mamori and The Original left but we ran into Agon.  He flirted with her but she turned him down.”_ Hiruma figured Agon’s reaction from that point.  _“The Original didn’t like that so, poof, out I come, and we have a miniature showdown.  It wasn’t long enough for anything to really happen, but I remember the feeling of him.  Pure, unadulterated evil.  Not for a purpose like you, not angry like me, just straight up I’m-a-crush-you-into-the-dirt-for-no-reason-but-wanting-to evil.”_ Hiruma remembered that day, noting that Demon had come out for no apparent purpose.  He should’ve known the fucking dreads had something to do with it.  _“Don’t worry about us Yoichi, we’re okay.  I’m really fucking pissed right now, but we’re okay.”_ The brunette gave his captain one of his cockier grins. _“All it is is one more reason to kill them, right?”_ The blond grinned back, agreeing. 

Of course, that didn’t mean he wasn’t about to _not_ declare war on Agon the next day, especially when an amateur reporter called to unknowingly give him the perfect opportunity.

_Almost nothing pissed Agon off more than his little dates being interrupted._

If Hiruma was the type, he would have felt bad for the girl.  She obviously had no idea whom she had been dealing with prior to the blond’s arrival, and judging by how she was still in her seat with the two of them present ( _as opposed to running screaming for the hills_ ), she still didn’t have a clue. 

Not that it really mattered; she was a complete non-entity to Hiruma.  Sitting there clueless, an almost visible question mark above her head, as the pair verbally dueled.  There was little rhyme or reason behind Agon bringing up the past except to break Hiruma’s composure, but everyone knows that psychological warfare is the blond’s favourite game.  So back and forth they went even as they answered her questions with their frighteningly similar yet clashing answers. 

Hiruma wanted to burst out laughing at the girlfriend question and seriously considered telling her the truth ( _the kind that’s obedient and male, with a little Multiple Personality Disorder thrown in to keep it interesting_ ), but figured Sena would want to be there for that so settled for another truth ( _a girl I can use_ ). 

Eventually, Agon got bored and left, but not before reminding Hiruma one more time that the dreads essentially got Kurita kicked out of Shinryuuji on purpose because if there’s one thing he hates, it’s guys who need to put the effort in.

_Wait until he gets a load of Yukimitsu.  That will be a show. Kekeke…_


	26. to Game Over

Arrival back to the clubhouse found the brat and the monkey eavesdropping on Doburoku teaching Yukimitsu his own personal use ( _need a new nickname, he’s not bald anymore_ ). The blond sprayed them both with barbeque sauce and let Cerberus go to town.  Doburoku questioned his decision, but it was for the best; he needed all his players focused on their own specific roles.  Which they did, pulling out all the stops during practice.  Even Demon could be seen, pushing his shared body to its limits. 

Then Kurita disappeared.  Again.

Hiruma pulled out the flamethrower, fucking fat ass was never hiding in the shitty vaulting horse again, ( _old man seemed impressed that Anezaki had already prepared a fire extinguisher_ ) before Musashi told him to leave it.  Kurita would learn to man up on his own, but for now… well, Shinryuuji was special.

Of course, then the kids all wanted to know what the big deal about Shinryuuji and the fat ass was and, as usual, the old man had no qualms about telling them everything.  Everything.  About the original plan to attend Shinryuuji.  About the sports merit program. 

About Agon. 

The look in Demon’s eyes was calling for Agon’s blood on the ground, and the blond almost worried.  Worried for what would happen to Sena if he went after Agon, to his body if he lost and his sanity if he won ( _because Sena could win.  He_ would _win_ ).  But it was okay, because after Musashi finished the story, Kurita came out of the clubhouse with a determined look on his face and dressed one of the tackle dummies in the Shinryuuji uniform.  He then tackled the dummy so hard, the uniform shredded to bits and the kids couldn’t help but cheer. 

Rage, anger, hurt; it would all be put to good use in the upcoming match.

The day before the match, the blond found that the brunette’s intuition was amazing.  Hiruma knew roughly when the Shinryuuji Naga would go over their battle plans for Deimon’s individual players, he was even 80% sure that Agon would show up ( _maybe not to actually participate, but he’d be there_ ).  But Sena knew none of that, and he still got shivers shooting up and down his spine right around the time that Hiruma predicted Agon to see Sena’s face on the school’s waterfall projector.  The boy brushed off the worry of his friends ( _where did Anezaki pull all that cold medication from?_ ) and when the blond texted him later that night about his fears, he got a digital chuckle in return, saying that Suzuna asked about the same thing not two minutes earlier. 

Apparently Suzuna also suggested giving a good luck kiss and getting one in return.  The more that girl hung around, the more Hiruma liked her.

Game day dawned beautifully, and the stadium was packed.  More importantly ( _and miraculously_ ) was that Agon was early.  Of course the fucking dreads had to show off and change right there at the bench, revealing muscles upon muscles and a large dragon tattoo across his back. 

And now Demon wants a go at the fucking dreads.  At least the display hadn’t intimidated original Sena.  

Speaking of individual rivalries, Ikkyuu had come over to the Deimon bench probably to get a close-up look at Anezaki.  Of course, wherever the manager went, the monkey went panting after her and bam, the receiver and the cornerback make contact.  Just as they were getting serious with each other, Yamabushi came over and dragged his underclassman back over to his own bench, berating him for getting to see the girls first- err for slacking. 

Shitty brats were so busy focusing on the enemy, they forgot why they came to the field.  Oh well, Hiruma would remind them.  Deimon did not come to _defeat_ Shinryuuji.  They came to _kill_ Shinryuuji.   _YA-HA!_

With the Nagas’ kick-off the game began and because of the monkey’s catching ability, it started with Deimon’s ball.  And the Monta-Ikkyuu rivalry at the forefront.

As is typical of a natural genius, Ikkyuu was incredibly reluctant to recognize Monta as anything other than an arrogant wannabe.  To be fair, on the first play the cornerback more or less destroyed the monkey and was less than impressed with the fight that the receiver had put up.  The second play resulted in Shinryuuji’s interception. 

The teams then set up for Shinryuuji’s offense so that Sena was marking Agon and Monta was on Ikkyuu.  The problem was, while Sena did what he was supposed to and rushed to bump Agon, it would take Demon and all his rage-induced ferocity to effectively stop the fucking dreads. 

Hiruma, playing safety, ran to meet Agon after he caught his pass.  The blond predicted and took the first chop, and proceeded to entwine his arms around his nemesis’ leg, only to have said nemesis brutally smash his blond head into the ground.  Agon scored a touchdown. 

However, there was another point to the blond attempting to stop the dread head; to taunt him, bait him into playing both offense and defence, even on the kick team if possible.  If they let that monster rest, there was no way they would win. 

Agon graciously rose to that taunt and proceeded to cut Sena down once again with an arm chop and Hiruma knew it was only going to get worse. Sure enough, Shinryuuji’s next offense set up as the unstoppable Dragon Fly.  Three plays later, both Sena and Monta had that _holy fucking shit this is why they’re the strongest_ look on their faces and Kurita was ready to burst into tears.  Fucking dreads’ commentary was _not fucking helping, so get your ass back to your own bench, shithead!_

Instead of saying such, Hiruma took the opportunity to taunt Agon some more, which did in fact result in his playing the kick team.  Of course, Agon made a point of telling the blond that he knew exactly what the quarterback was up to, but said quarterback already figured he did so it didn’t bother him.  The teams set up for the next play. 

It was Shinryuuji’s kickoff again, but instead of kicking to the side opposite from Eyeshield 21 in their usual by-the-book style, the ball sailed straight into the brunette’s arms.  But this was no miss-kick, as was obvious by the smirk on Agon’s face as he rushed to meet the small running back.  The small player accepted the challenge, using everything in his repertoire to slip through Agon’s fingers ( _and twice at that!_ ) only for the dread head to chop the ball out of Sena’s arms. 

The idiot Taki managed to break away and grab the ball, but was tackled in Deimon’s end zone, resulting in a safety and another two points for Shinryuuji.  He looked upset about it, but was swiftly told that a safety for the Nagas beat another touchdown for the Nagas. 

Unfortunately, it only went downhill from there.  The line had developed a way to counter Kurita’s strength.  Ikkyuu was blocking the monkey at every turn.  Even when Deimon switched to land tactics with the Wishbone, Agon stopped them cold.  The Devil Bats were beginning to realize why Shinryuuji had gone to the Christmas Bowl for nine years running. 

The score had widened to 32-0 for the Nagas by halftime and the team was starting to lose hope. 

Until, for the first time ever, someone other than Hiruma noticed Demon. 


	27. to Gambler

Okay, so that might have been a lie.  Nobody actually noticed that Sena had a split personality; just serious rage issues. 

Here’s what happened: Agon said something about the Christmas Bowl dream that Kurita, Musashi, and Hiruma shared being a ‘happy game over’ ( _because he’s a prick that way_ ) and that incited Demon’s anger to such a level, that everyone instinctively took a few steps away from him. 

When the fucking monkey tentatively asked him what was wrong, Demon took a stab at talking like the original Sena, using Hiruma-san instead of Yoichi, and the blond was grateful that there were so many idiots on the team because he was already going to have to deal with one Hell of an interrogation from the firmly disbelieving Musashi, Juumonji, and even Anezaki ( _oh,_ now _she notices things_ ). 

But there was an upside to Demon’s anger: Shinryuuji noticed it too. 

Now, a step back or two would normally make so little a difference in a football formation that nobody would see it.  Which is why Deimon had missed it when Shinryuuji had taken those steps back in response to Musashi’s kick.  Add another step or two from Demon’s rage…

_Now we’re on to something._

This could be just what the Devil Bats needed, if they could pull it off.  An onside kick would be perfect, but how to tell the team without Shinryuuji noticing?  Hiruma decided to put one of his better skills to use.

He gambled.

The blond turned to his players and told them it was over.   He told them to just be safe, not get injured, so they could play next year.  He told them that there was only a 0.1% chance of victory.  Then he stepped back and watched, waiting to see how many of his players had paid attention over the past months. 

They didn’t disappoint.

Just as Musashi’s foot connected to the leather, the lot of them had fallen into formation as if they were shared a single mind.  Chaos descended on to the field, Deimon scrambled and Shinryuuji panicked and for a second it appeared that Yamabushi had seized the ball. 

Only when he stood, it was Komusubi underneath him; nose bloody and clutching the ball.

It was Deimon’s offense and Hiruma decided it was time to up the ante.  He brought Yukimitsu out on to the field. 

The baldy near about had a heart attack at the difference in sheer pressure between the bench and the field but he seemed to adapt pretty quickly.  The confusion over at Shinryuuji was palpable as they tried to figure out the reasoning behind Yukimitsu’s presence on the field.  Agon sent Ikkyuu to mark the baldy for the first play.

The play in which the fucking baldy tripped over his own two feet.

Thankfully, Ikkyuu marking Yukimitsu shifted the Shinryuuji lineup and left the fucking idiot open to receive a pass.  Ikkyuu evidently believed the baldy was trying to mess with him somehow and tried marking him again.  The second year didn’t trip this time but the difference in ability was blatant and Ikkyuu swiftly reported back that Yukimitsu was so laughably weak, there wasn’t any need to mark him whatsoever.

Idiots.   

Yukimitsu recognized his Option Route in an instant that rivalled Hiruma’s own brain and he went for it.  Unfortunately, Agon and Ikkyuu were called geniuses for a reason and they were on the baldy within three feet of his starting position.

Not that it mattered when Yukimitsu scored Deimon’s first touchdown.

The second year would later confess that for a split second he hadn’t believed he could win the confrontation, but decided that he _would_ win, if only so that Agon and Ikkyuu (who had been competing against each other at that point) would recognize him as an actual player. 

Musashi did his part by putting his bonus kick through the goalposts and Deimon’s energy level surged in response.  It was the beginning of the counterattack. 

The next play used the onside kick as a decoy for a real kick and if it weren’t for Unsui, the Nagas would have fallen completely apart in their scrambling.  Unfortunately, Unsui made up for all the leadership and people skills that Agon lacked, and kept the Nagas functioning as perfectly as ever, ceasing their scrambling and giving them succinct orders that they followed immediately.  Agon caught the ball and ran it back to the center.  It was Shinryuuji’s offense. 

The Kongo brothers were about to resume the Dragon Fly and Hiruma could only come up with one way to counteract it. 

And Sena’s legs weren’t going to survive it. 

The kid would have to blitz Agon for every play, whether he had the ball or not, to disrupt the Agon-Unsui hotline and it would probably kill him before the game was done. 

The fucking old man made a point to tell him so as if he didn’t already know.  As if Sena didn’t already know. 

But the kid did as he was told, lined up, and set to blitz Agon. 

He was ruthlessly cut down and Shinryuuji gained twelve yards.  

Hiruma kept pushing the small brunette, urging him forward, pitting him against the monster that was dread-head.  The next play began. 

It started the same way the previous one did: the ball was hiked to Agon, Sena blitzed, Agon cut Sena down.  The difference was that the running back wasn’t finished yet. 

Hiruma was at a poor angle to completely read Agon’s lips, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that he probably made another crack about the tournament being done for Deimon.  That comment, just like last time, woke up Demon. 

And Agon noticed. 

The Nagas still gained four yards and Agon would brush it off as nothing when Ikkyuu asked him about it, but there was no mistaking that the dread head just lost 30% of his available time to find a receiver.  The blitzes were working.

Therefore, Shinryuuji decided to mix it up even further and have Unsui hand off the ball to Sanzo for a run through the center, only to have Sanzo back pass it to Agon. 

Demon wasn’t having any of that.

Once again, the rage persona forced Agon to notice him; from his position, Demon could only see the dread head, and didn’t have a clue where Sanzo was or what he was doing with the ball.  However, Demon had no problems reacting to Agon’s movements.  So when the Nagas player made to receive Sanzo’s pass, Demon simply reached out and knocked the ball off course _without so much as glancing at it._

God, Hiruma loved that kid.

Before the blond’s mind could be fully consumed with the ridiculously monumental thought it just produced, he hurriedly shoved it in a box with a thousand locks on it.  This was neither the time nor the place for serious emotional revelations.  Agon cut Sena down and the ball was still rolling around free.

The monkey had already been moving toward where the ball would be when Sena intercepted it, so it seemed he would get there first.  Ikkyuu wasn’t having any of that, and quickly shut Monta down.

Then the Kuri-Hammer was born!

The look on Agon’s face as Kurita body-slammed them all… Hiruma was going to scour every camera he could find until he found a shot of it.  The absolute shock was just too good to pass up.

Juumonji was the first to escape the scramble; grabbing the ball and booking it down the field to Shinryuuji’s endzone.

Agon decided fuck that and took off after him. 

The dread head caught the blond player about an inch from the endzone, and Hiruma figured that such effort was enough considering it was the first time Juumonji had touched the ball in a game. 

Juumonji disagreed.

Hiruma was just realizing that the pair was still standing over there, when the ref called a touchdown. 

The moment was soured as Sena’s knees began to give out on him. Hiruma called a timeout for Doburoku to put some ice packs on the chibi.

However, the fucking monk couldn’t be mind-gamed out of continuing to play the Dragon Fly because he knew what it was doing to the small running back’s legs to keep up with Agon.  Play resumed.

Sena continued to do battle with Agon, switching back and forth with Demon so much so that Hiruma could no longer keep track of which one was doing what ( _pretty sure Demon invented the arm maneuver, but it could very easily had been Sena’s panicked flailing_ ).  Agon recognized Sena as a proper player now, which was good in that he was laying off the taunting now, but bad in that he was putting more effort into defeating the small player.

It was actually Kurita who managed to finally stop Shinryuuji’s offense, using a Sena-inspired arm move that shoved Yamabushi into the dirt, and sacked Unsui. 

Too little, too late. It was 21 yards to Deimon’s endzone; an easy kicking distance.  With the point gap widened from 18 points to 21, it was pretty much the last nail in Deimon’s coffin. 

The only thing left to try was a super long pass.  Monta would have to defeat Ikkyuu once and for all, or the Devil Bats were dead in the water.

The first play they used Yukimitsu’s Option Route to score a first down, but after a timeout from Shinryuuji ( _more ice time for Sena_ ), that was it.  They had 35 yards to go and no time left. 

Given the circumstances, Hiruma couldn’t fault everyone and their mother for believing that Deimon would use a Hail Mary pass, but it should have been common knowledge that the Devil didn’t ask God for favours. _Kekeke…_

The Hail Devil pass was perfectly designed to pull Ikkyuu and Monta into a purely catching battle and for a second it looked like Ikkyuu was going to win with an interception, but then this _look_ came over the monkey; as if he wasn’t really there anymore and his body was moving solely on instinct.

While the two were still in the air, Monta simply reached out and _took_ the ball from Ikkyuu.  His yell of “Catch MAX!” very nearly drowned out the ref’s call of a touchdown. 

There were eight minutes left and they needed only two more touchdowns.  Ikkyuu came over to the Deimon bench and asked for Monta’s name. 

Even better, Ikkyuu’s movements were now coloured with fear of Monta repeating his insane maneuvers causing him to simply fall to the ground instead of running with the ball.  With his efficiency cut down, Shinryuuji was forced to limit its passing game.

Agon once again decided fuck that.

The dread head took the ball from his brother ( _literally said ‘give it’_ ), ripped off Sena’s Devil Bat Ghost, and gained 20 yards for Shinryuuj.  Just in time for Sena to collapse. 

Hiruma used Deimon’s final timeout to stage an argument with Musashi ( _who really didn’t need to draw blood, dammit!_ ) and stress the apparent need to have Sena mark Agon.

Only for Sena to steal the ball from Unsui and leave Agon completely unmarked for the following play.

The dread head was _pissed._

He immediately took off after Sena, caught up, even got in front of the kid somehow and-

 _“Game Over.”_   Those words were beginning to look like a trigger to wake up Demon.  Hiruma wondered if it was the words themselves or the fact that Agon was saying them and resolved to test the theory later. 

Either way, Demon took complete hold of their shared body and attempted to stiff-arm Agon, twice, before faking a stiff-arm and shifting into a Devil Bat Ghost.  Agon caught up again only this time, from the angle of his head and how he extended his left arm for the ball, he couldn’t see let alone react to Demon’s arm shoving his helmet into the dirt. 

It was Eyeshield 21’s first touchdown of the game, and how sweet it tasted. 

However, with five minutes left on the clock, it was Shinryuuji’s offense and Deimon still needed one more touchdown to tie up the score. 

Motherfucking Unsui ( _whom earned his bodyweight in Hiruma’s respect this game_ ) decided to burn the remaining time with a super-offensive, impossible-to-read play: the Golden Dragon Fly. 

Not just the two Kongo quarterbacks, but Ikkyuu as well.  _Fuck!_

And so it happened that by the time that the ball returned to Deimon, there were 97 yards to Shinryuuji’s endzone and 58 seconds left on the clock.  _Double fuck!_

There were a couple ways to stop the clock, but this was gonna be tricky.  They needed consecutive first downs, but Shinryuuji kept forcing the players inside the lines, meaning Hiruma had to keep spiking and thus losing attacks.  However, using Yukimitsu and the In Motion tactic, they continued to inch forward little by little, starting and stopping time as needed.

Until finally, with 18 seconds left and 59 yards to go, the blond threw a long pass to the fucking monkey. 

Monta knew that Ikkyuu would tip the course of the pass and caught it anyway, and Sena raced up behind them to take out the safety. Everything went perfectly.

Except, Agon had read the play and was also waiting for the monkey.  Monta didn’t stand a chance. 

Deimon had all of four seconds to get across almost 40 yards and set up for a spike.  Kurita couldn’t make it.  Time ran out and Deimon had lost. 

And then Monta’s own personal miracle occurred: the ref called for the timekeeper to turn the clocks back four seconds to the time at which ‘the holder of the ball had gone out of bounds’. 

Monta had reached out, mid-tackle, and grabbed a piece of dirt from outside the line and saved Deimon’s skin.

“ _Didn’t I tell you?  I won’t lose to anyone in catching._ ”  Fuckin’ A.  The fucking monkey saved their asses.

Since heaven decided to bequeath them this last chance to attack, Hiruma decided to pull out all the stops and use even the audience in the strategy.  He used In Motion, had Kurita directly snap the ball to Sena who then back passed it to Hiruma who went running for the endzone. 

Agon chased him. 

Hiruma could hear the smirk in the dread head’s voice as he told the blond that he wasn’t going anywhere at a speed of only 5.2 for the 40.  Hiruma knew Agon could hear the laugh in the blond’s own voice when he replied that there’s this thing called practice and it can shave 0.1 seconds off a person’s time. 

Hiruma scored a touchdown.

The score was 35-34 and there was no time left on the clock now.  All that was left was the try-for-point.  If Musashi kicked it in, the resulting tie would send the game into overtime, or they could go for the direct win with a two-point conversion. 

Sena’s legs wouldn’t be able to take overtime. 

Since its inception, the Shinruuji Nagas team has never once allowed a two-point conversion to succeed. 

It was a lose-lose situation, the safe play into overtime, or the sudden death gamble two-point conversion.  Like true Devil Bats, they took the gamble.

They faked a kick, then made it look like Hiruma was going to break through the middle, only to have Hiruma back pass it to Sena. 

Fucking brat fumbled it. Sonuvabitch.

Thankfully, Kurita single-handedly toppled Yamabushi, Agon, Ikkyuu, and some pig-faced lineman, giving Sena the opportunity to grab the ball and all but roll into the endzone. 

The score was 35-36.  Deimon’s victory.


	28. to And Toward The Decisive Game

They won.  _They won._   They defeated Shinryuuji.  They defeated _Agon._

Hiruma felt like he could just float off the ground, like he had been carrying some great weight and somebody just picked it up off him.  He decided to revel in this odd feeling of freedom ( _it was like he could taste fucking_ light _on his tongue_ ) and let the rest of Deimon get caught up in the flow of things, like their impending match with Oujo and Taiyou/Hakushuu game and Gaou Rikiya. 

Gaou Rikiya was going to be a problem for Shien and Seibu. 

It appeared, however, that even monsters could respect their opponents.  As some loser mocked the fallen Banba, Gaou effectively declared war on that person ( _who very quickly shut up_ ).  When the loser refused to come out, Gaou threatened to just crush the entire audience. 

Just as it looked like a fight was about to break out a voice ( _very different from the loser’s voice_ ) spoke up to take the blame for the derogatory comments. 

It was Riku.

The small blond came down from the stands to stand in front of Gaou.  The calculating look in his eyes clearly spoke to having no intentions of getting crushed and his body almost appeared to vibrate with the energy to dodge the first blow.  But the monster surprised them again. 

He all but laughed at Riku, saying that even he could tell that Riku wasn’t the kind of person to say such things about Banba. 

Marco and Shien appeared to collect their respective players and the tension diffused.  Hiruma saw the look on Shien’s face and could tell that both quarterbacks understood that Gaou was the most troublesome type of powerhouse; not the kind that can’t control his own strength, but the type that chooses not to. 

To nobody’s surprise, Seibu dominated in their next match against the Misaki Wolves.  Lightning flashed shortly after the game’s completion, prompting the Association to postpone the Oujo/Sado match until later that evening. 

This meant that Deimon had a couple of hours to themselves.  They went to buy food, Monta and Sena congratulated Riku, and Musashi dragged Hiruma off to finally be interrogated. 

The kicker shoved him around behind the stadium to where Anezaki and Juumonji were waiting for them.  He took one look at their faces and sighed through his nose.  He pulled out a cell phone and called the kid they would inevitably be discussing. 

With three minutes of being called, Sena skidded around the corner.  He seemed confused at who he found there and asked what Hiruma called him for.  The blond asked him to listen to something and pressed a button on his phone. 

A recording of Agon’s voice saying ‘game over’ came out of the speaker and with a full body shiver Sena went to sleep.  Demon asked Hiruma where he got that recording to which the quarterback replied that one never knew where he would find fresh blackmail.  He then jerked his thumb toward the other three Devil Bats and told the brunette to introduce himself. 

_“Right.  Hi all, I’m Demon.  I’m a third- or no, I’m a whole half now.  I’m half of ‘Kobayakawa Sena’.  My root emotion is rage.  Pleasure to officially meet you all.”_

Multiple Personality Disorder.  They were all thinking it, Musashi said it first.  Anezaki asked how long Sena was- er, Demon had- wait, how to put this-

 _“I’ve been more or less separate from The Original since sometime in middle school, but I’ve only really been rational since the Death March.”_   Musashi asked about what Demon meant when he initially said ‘a third’.  _“There used to be a third one of us, but he’s gone now.  He got absorbed back into The Original.  Before you ask, no, The Original doesn’t have a clue about this.  He’ll vaguely remember that this conversation happened, but not what it was about.  Although, he’s starting to realize that so many fuzzy patches isn’t really normal.”_   Hiruma asked what Demon meant.  _“Eyeshield was the smart one, remember?  Now The Original notices things he didn’t used to notice.  It’s like he’s found the door in his mind that separates us two, but doesn’t quite know how to open it.”_   Hiruma said he would handle it and Demon turned to Juumonji.  _“You’ve been very quiet; don’t you have some inane question for me?”_ Juumonji raised his hands and said he just wanted to know how non-confrontational Sena-kun could make such an angry face as the one everybody saw during the match.  His questions were answered.

Besides, it was Anezaki who seemed to be struggling with this revelation.

Demon looked unconcerned. _“Mamori couldn’t tell that we were Eyeshield 21 even though all the evidence was right there.  She could only reconcile the fact with her perception of us through the belief that we’ve grown up during the past few months.  To find out that she’s managed to overlook an entire chunk of our personality for at least two years now must be a considerable shock for her.  She’ll get over it.”_ The brunette looked up at the sky.  _“It’s getting dark.  Ojou’s match will start soon, and we think Shin’s gonna show us something good.  Riku told the Original just now that he taught Shin the theory of the Rodeo Drive, and we wanna see how he incorporates that into his tackle.  Should be fun.”_

The grin on the boy’s face was downright bloodthirsty.  Hiruma cackled.

By the time the five of them arrived back at their seats, Demon had retreated and the game had just begun with Sado’s offence.  Sena raced up to the railing just in time to see Shin’s newly completed Trident Tackle practically rip through Sado’s so-called star player, take the ball by force, and score a touchdown within 30 seconds of the game beginning.  The rest of the game followed a similar pattern, resulting in the overwhelming but unsurprising victory for Ojou.  The White Knights were headed to the semi-finals, where the Devil-Bats were waiting.

It was almost time for the decisive battle.

Later that evening, as they were all heading home, Sena tugged on Hiruma’s sleeve and asked if they could go home together.  The kid was blushing up a storm which led the blond to correctly assume that whoever’s house they ended up at first, they’d spend the rest of the night there, in varying stages of undress.

Hiruma’s place was closest.

As the pair walked, the brunette leaned into his captain’s side, allowing a long arm to curl around his shoulders.  The pair made idle chatter as they walked, commenting on this and that until they reached the blond’s apartment.  Hiruma ( _belatedly_ ) figured the kid was probably going to pass out on his couch at some point ( _wouldn’t blame him_ ) and didn’t really feel like getting all turned on only to be left high and dry, so he sat the kid down and made some tea.  Sena quietly looked around for a second before asking about a photograph that caught his eye. 

Now, Hiruma wasn’t the type to keep trinkets lying around, but he did occasionally frame a commemorative picture or two to remind him of where he started from.  As a result, there were a total of four pictures.

The first was of a very young Hiruma who was focusing very intently on a shogi board.  There seemed to have been another person in the shot, but the photo was torn so that only the person’s hand was visible. Next to it was one of a slightly older Hiruma, about nine or ten and looking bored, with a group of smiling soldiers from the American military base where the blond had learned to play _amefuto_.  The most recent was of the Devil Bats the morning after they arrived in Vegas from the Death March.

The one that Sena was asking about was the Maoh Trio, holding the first Devil Bat jerseys ever made.  Kurita was crying tears of joy and Musashi had his arm slung around a grinning Hiruma’s shoulders.

The blond confirmed that the shot was taken the day the Maoh Devil Bats were officially created.  The brunette chuckled and made a comment about how close quarterback and kicker always seemed to be.  The blond admitted that despite knowing Kurita for longer, it was Musashi that he considered a brother first. 

 _“I used to be a little jealous of him, you know, Musashi-san.  He just knew you so well.  He knew all your little habits, ones that I hadn’t even seen until he reappeared that day, and he had a history with you that I could never be a part of-”_ It appeared the kid might continue babbling if Hiruma hadn’t tugged him close and shushed him.  The blond told the kid that yeah, all that was true, and the old man probably knew Hiruma better than Hiruma knew himself sometimes, so much so that he knew just how important Sena was to the blond after a five second conversation. 

The small boy looked confused for a second before his eyes softened and he let out a nervous chuckle, snuggling in close to his captain and allowing said captain to seal their lips together.

Things quickly became heated and they managed to maneuver their way to Hiruma’s bedroom without separating.  Sena fell backwards onto the bed, pulling his upperclassman down with him, but before the pair could continue swapping saliva, something occurred to the brunette.

“ _Okay, I know what we’re about to do here, and I know we both obviously want to do it, but this won’t just be having fun anymore.  What will this make us?_ ”  The blond rolled off Sena to lie beside him, propped his head up on his arm, stroked the first year’s cheek, and asked what Sena wanted them to be.  “ _I want us… to be us.  Together.  Like we have been, but… I dunno, permanently.  I’m not asking you to marry me or anything ridiculous, but,_ ” and here the brunette reached up and tightened his hands around the wrist resting against his jaw “ _Since I’ve always been yours, I want you to be mine.  Only mine._ ”

Hiruma briefly remembered having a very similar conversation with Demon so many months ago. 

He pressed his forehead to Sena’s and said that if it was what the kid wanted, the blond would swear his mind, body, and soul ( _cold and black as it was_ ) to Sena.  Those too-big eyes were incredibly shiny this close up and the blond momentarily feared the brunette would start crying before said brunette reached up and kissed him.

It was noted that this passion tasted better than the straight lust from earlier, and then Hiruma was lost to sensation.

When the blond regained some sense of himself, he was back on top of his running back and had pushed the kid’s shirt up enough to get a look at a torso that seemed a fair bit more developed than last time they did this ( _been way too long_ ).  He sat back a bit before leaning down to kiss just over the boy’s heart and marking a trail down over his abs to the waistband of his pants.   Small fingers wound their way through his hair, accompanying the delicious little whimpers that Hiruma didn’t realize he missed so much.

Nuzzling into the brunette’s hip, long fingers slipped into the brunette’s waistband and tugged both the pants and the boxers down.  Goosebumps rose on the tender flesh as it was exposed to the air and sharp green eyes.  He swiftly removed the garment before leaning back and shedding his own shirt.  Taking some initiative, Sena followed suit in removing his top before reaching down to tug at the button and zipper of Hiruma’s pants, causing the blond to chuckle and shed those too. 

When they were both sufficiently naked, Hiruma leaned over to the side table drawer and fished out a condom and some lube before planting another firm kiss on the brunette’s lips.  Now, nobody could ever truthfully say that the blond wasn’t a proficient multitasker but, given the, er, shall we say _delicacy_ he would need, the quarterback decided to devote his full attention to what he was about to do.

Sitting back up, the tactician spread his underclassman’s knees ( _prompting an adorable blush_ ) and settled properly between them as he coated his fingers with the lube, smearing it around to warm it.  Sufficiently slicked, the blond ran the pad of his forefinger lightly over Sena’s small opening.  After a moment of watching it twitch and quiver, Hiruma slowly started to insert his finger, wringing a strangled gasp out of the running back.   He wiggled it around a bit before carefully adding a second, all the while watching and analyzing every flicker of emotion to cross Sena’s face for discomfort.  He kissed the shaking thigh next to him before adding the third finger, stretching, scissoring, curling-

The brunette’s spine went rigid as he let out a shrieking squeal.  Hiruma smirked as he hit that spot again, sending the boy writhing. 

Finally deciding to move on, the quarterback ripped the condom out of its wrapper and slicked it on his own neglected erection along with the leftover lube from his fingers and crawled on top of his running back.  He moulded his lips to Sena’s one more time before whispering _hold on to me_ and started to push-

_Tight, so tight, impossibly tight and hot, overwhelmingly hot, melting, he’s melting, can’t take this, need more, more, more, so much more-_

Hiruma held on to his sanity by a thread, grounded by the crescent shapes being left in the skin of his shoulders by Sena’s fingernails.  Knowing that the brunette was in more than a little pain right now kept him from moving much further, instead rubbing soothing circles into his underclassman’s hip and planting kisses down his neck and over his shoulders, urging him to _relax, just relax, it gets easier, just settle down_.

And Sena tried, but it was hard, so hard, when all he could focus on was this _burning_ between his legs. Nothing he had ever read, or heard, or researched had prepared him for this and it _hurt_.  He had to take a few shuddering breaths and wait for his muscles to adjust to being full before he urged his bedmate to move.  It was an invitation that the blond had no problems taking.

Hiruma started slow, mindful of his partner’s inexperience, but passion soon had him moving steadily faster.  Sena began to moan and whimper encouragements as the blond drove deeper into the pliant body beneath him.  He reached down and stroked the brunette’s thigh and wrapped his hand around the knee and brought the leg up to wrap around his hip, changing the angle just enough to hit that spot that had Sena sobbing and turning to mush.

Knowing that the boy wouldn’t be able to take much more, he quickly took the brunette’s weeping cock in his hand and stroked in time to his frenzied thrusts and watched as the boy came entirely undone.  The small spine arched, pressing the pair of them impossibly close as he let out a wail and painted his stomach white. 

Hiruma continued pounding into his underclassman, words spilling past his lips, _hold on, just a little more, just hold on a little more for me,_ until he too reached his peak and collapsed.  After taking a moment to catch his breath, he turned to his boy ( _congrats, you’ve been successfully de-virgin-ized_ ) only to find the running back had finally passed out. 

Hiruma chuckled and pecked his cheek before getting up.  He removed and disposed of the condom, pulled on a pair of pants, and got a damp washcloth to wipe the kid clean.  He was trying to find some sweats to dress the kid in when he heard a phone buzzing.  Realizing it wasn’t any of his own phones, he figured it must have been Sena’s.  He tucks a blanket around the boy and runs to fetch the phone.

He almost cringes when the caller ID reads MOM.

Sure enough, upon answering, he was bombarded with _where the hell are you_ s and _you are so grounded_ s and _get your skinny butt home right now_ s before he could point out that she was in fact _not_ talking to her son.  He then proceeded to fib about Sena falling asleep in the changing room and _this is the address if you wanted to come pick him up_. 

She was at his door by the time he got the boy dressed again.

As she whisked Sena away, Hiruma chuckled again and sent him a text to find in the morning. 

He needed to go to bed.


	29. to Storm

As expected, every muscle in Hiruma’s body was screaming when he got up the next morning.  He briefly lamented having sex on top of everything else ( _could only imagine what the kid might be dealing with right now_ ), but the blond didn’t have it in himself to truly regret it. 

He sent out a mass text to the team, cancelling today’s practice.  He didn’t mention that he still wanted them all to show up at the clubroom because he knew they would anyway, and he felt like teasing the fucking manager a bit.  He then went about gathering paint and pseudo players and calling up a helicopter service.  They might be having a rest day, but there were still many things to do. 

Sure enough, every single member showed up at the clubhouse and Anezaki declared her victory ( _though she actually lost when agreed to gamble in the first place_ ).  Kicking the kids out of the clubhouse and into the helicopters, the blond explained the concept behind Ojou’s defense using the colour coded sections of the field and having the pseudo players move as directed.  But there was another reason for the impromptu aerial view: as the monkey pointed out, the group could quite clearly see Ojou Senior High School from this altitude. 

Hiruma whipped out a telescope only to find that Takami’s ability to be a sneaky bastard was applicable off the field as well; knowing that the blond wanted a peek at the White Knights’ new strategy, the bespectacled quarterback had moved practice inside to the school’s gym. 

No one could ever say that Hiruma Yoichi did not relish a challenge. 

Luckily, the following day was Ojou’s cultural festival.  The school was open to the public and featured a chance to watch the White Knights practice.  Hiruma wondered at the irony of going to all those defensive measures only to hand Deimon a gift wrapped invitation to come snoop around.  Who planned that?

Not that it really mattered in the long run.  The blond brought the team along and let them have their fun making a ruckus whilst he snuck into the gym storage closet.  Yesterday’s practice had the White Knights pitted against their own upperclassmen, the Silver Knights, at Ojou University.  There was no way a match like that would go unrecorded, if only so that the Silver Knights coach had an idea which players could be recruited next year. 

The closet was about twice the size of the one at Deimon, which meant more junk to sort through but the quarterback was nothing if not thorough and relentless.  His persistence paid off in the form of a written play-by-play of the game and the final scoreboard.  He snapped a picture of the board, read through the material, absorbed the information, and came to a conclusion. 

_Deimon was in so much shit right now._

The tactician still needed to confirm his findings with the Ojou players so off he went to find most of them in the audience of some kind of quiz show type game.  Seeing as Otowara and Taki were both contestants, the quiz was already shot to Hell so the blond figured there was no harm in his replacing the host.  He even dressed the part. 

Initially, it seemed that Takami wasn’t going to budge an inch, but then along came Shin with his Warrior’s Pride wanting to duel Sena on a relatively even playing field.  The bespectacled quarterback sighed and gave in, confirming that the Devil Bats were up to their ears in trouble. 

Shin Seijuuro was playing both defensively as a linebacker, and _offensively as a running back._

The worst part about it was that since Shin is fucking _tireless,_ his new responsibilities on offense did nothing to detract from his considerable skill as a linebacker.  On the contrary, he actually seemed to be getting _better_ ; the whole team did.  Aside from a field goal right in the beginning, the so-called Golden Generation hadn’t scored a point.  Hiruma mentally brought up and scrolled through the final scoreboards of every match the White Knights played during the tournament and realized that not one single team had scored a proper touchdown at all. 

The challenge made the blond tremble with excitement.

By the time he had finished explaining what they were up against, it was time to go watch the White Knights’ open practice. 

More shenanigans seemed to be going on over here as, for fuck knows what reason, Ootawara and Sakuraba both showed up in maid costumes.  Hiruma would later learn that such was the penalty for last place on the quiz show, but for right now he just wrote it off as Ojou being full of oddballs.  The receiver practice involved catching balls being thrown at them by the audience.  The monkey probably saw this as an excellent opportunity to declare war on Sakuraba, and he would have been right if he could actually throw a ball properly.  As it was, he demonstrated his ability to be a complete fucking idiot and hit himself in the face with the ball as it ricocheted off just about everything around him.  The resulting toss arced so far over the heads of the receivers that only one even attempted to jump for it. 

You guessed it; Mr. Maid Uniform caught the impossibly high ball.

When prompted, Monta admitted that even at the maximum height of his jump, he wouldn’t have even brushed it with his fingers.  However, his self-confidence picked back up when he plucked a bullet of a ball that seemed to whip out of nowhere before Sakuraba could even react to it.  Everyone seemed quite amazed to find it had been thrown by Kongo Unsui.  The Shinryuuji baldy mentioned that Ikkyuu was having trouble accepting that Monta had beaten him and the ensuing conversation ultimately culminated in Sakuraba issuing a challenge to Monta. 

It would seem that the blond had grown quite a backbone; he even claimed that he was aiming to overtake Shin. 

As the sun set, Deimon headed back for evening practice, it was time to dry out Doburoku so that he may grant the impossible requests of inventing countermeasures to both the Ballista and Takami and Sakuraba’s Everest Pass.  In response, the trainer pulled out a bunch of surgical masks.  The team quickly realized that practicing with the masks was ridiculously exhausting, what with their now limited ventilation.  Many nearly passed out due to oxygen deprivation and did not seem inclined to get up when they found that not only are they to wear the masks for practice, but they’re not to remove them _at all_ until right before the game. 

Clouds roiled across the horizon.  A storm was coming, and it was going to be big. 


	30. to Rainy Day Sunny Day

As expected, the rain came down hard on game day.  The field was quickly turning to mud and everyone was going to be filthy and soaked by halftime. 

The only way this could have been more fitting for their battle was if it was the final match instead of the semis.  _Oh well…_

The coin toss was really just a formality; Deimon would opt for offense, Ojou for defense. Either way, Deimon took first possession of the ball. 

It was nearly guaranteed that Ojou would kick it to Ishimaru’s side of the field to keep Eyeshield 21 out of play, so Hiruma made them switch just as the ball was in the air.  The kid caught it and was almost immediately overwhelmed by the White Knights.  The other Devil Bats rushed to his aid but the more they fought, the more the blond was reminded that many of these players won their defensive Tokyo Best Eleven titles for good reason.  Otowara was nothing short of a nightmare to deal with now that he’s discovered he’s got speed to go with his strength.  Sena barely managed to edge under his arm, to where Shin was waiting for him. 

As they say, from the frying pan into the fire. 

…Or maybe not, because there’s a new idiot on Ojou that swerved in out of nowhere and knocked Sena completely out of bounds.  The ref blew the whistle but it seemed the idiot either didn’t notice or care because he wasn’t stopping until Juumonji stepped between them.  Otowara came over and collected the idiot, laughing about how ‘Ikari’ has even less brains than Otowara himself did. 

It said something that the entire Ojou team agreed with the lineman. 

Juumonji, who had been shaking off the confrontation with Ikari, seemed to take this particular fight very seriously when he figured out that the idiot was actually a former delinquent just like himself and his buddies ( _judging from the piles of chains on the Ojou bench, the nickname ‘Prison Chain Ikari’ was meant quite literally_ ).  Hiruma figured that it was just as well that Ikari had interfered, as Sena hadn’t been totally prepared for a confrontation with Shin. The kid was something of a slow starter, and needed a little time to build himself up a bit.  So the quarterback started with pass plays.  First was a super short pass to Ishimaru ( _you just said you’d stop Ikari, do your fucking job Juumonji!_ ) and then the real play started. 

But not just any pass play, no, they went with the Shotgun.

The blond’s sharp ears picked up Shien chuckling at their audacity from the stands.  The Ojou players had barely gotten into position when Hiruma started the play, but they rallied pretty quickly… sort of.

_Why was Shin marking Yukimitsu?  Who set that up? Not that Deimon’s complaining, but Shin was the only one who could keep up with Sena’s speed. Doesn’t matter anyway…_

Monta was being marked by Iguchi whom, while another one of the defensive Tokyo’s Best Eleven, was not Ikkyuu by any stretch of imagination.  Monta snatched the ball away from the cornerback and pulled the team to a point only 32 yards from Ojou’s goal line.  Of course, it was only going to get more difficult from there; it was immediately apparent that the only person to compete with the fucking monkey was Sakuraba and they had no problem adding him to the defensive lineup as well as his usual position on offence.  On top of that, somewhere along the way he had found enough confidence to not slouch and that added at least five centimeters to height alone.  The top of Monta’s spikey head barely reached the blond receiver’s shoulder.

In Deimon’s next three attacks, they advanced exactly _zero_ yards.  It was Musashi’s turn to give it a go. 

The shitty old man didn’t disappoint.  First points of the game went to Deimon. 

However, as Takami so eloquently put it, three points is not a victory; especially not against a team that hasn’t taken lost a touchdown all season.  It was now Ojou’s offense.

And Takami is a _bastard…_

The very act of telling Deimon which side the Ballista will target, regardless if it was truth or lie, threw them all into confusion. The brats got too caught up thinking about the forewarning to properly brace themselves for whatever attack the White Knights threw at them.  The result was a first down for Ojou. 

 _Shin could fucking_ lift _Kurita!? What the fuck was this monster made of?_

In the end though, even the Ballista itself was a disguise.  The brats became fixated on blocking Shin just in time for Hiruma to notice the Ojou line forming a pass wall.  It was time for the Everest Pass and the monkey couldn’t catch up with Sakuraba to save his life. 

_Good thing Hiruma was prepared, kekeke…_

Except Takami expected Hiruma to be prepared and adjusted accordingly.  Sakuraba scored a touchdown, putting Ojou in the lead 6-3.  The only consistent advantage Deimon had over Ojou was in kicking, as evidenced by the White Knights failed try-for-point. 

It was Deimon’s offense but Shin was beginning to display the closest thing to impatience that Hiruma had ever seen from him.  The stoic linebacker blitzed and blitzed again ( _and fucking_ Hell _that Trident Tackle hurts_ ), proving just how ineffective any pass plays are against Ojou.  Shin wanted to battle Sena one-on-one and Hiruma had no choice but to oblige him.  So he handed off the ball and moved to help the line break open a hole for the kid to break through.  Not that he really needed to, it seemed that Ojou was just as eager to witness this final battle between Perfect Player Shin and Light Speed Sena. 

For one _glorious_ moment, Sena won.

Then Shin ruined it. 

That _bastard_ calmly stated that in order to defeat Sena, he had to break into that same world of light speed.  He said it as if it were simple, as if the small running back hadn’t devoted his _life_ to his running.  Things rapidly went downhill.  Shin flattened Sena again and again and finally scored a touchdown.  This time their kick succeeded and Ojou was now in the lead 13-3. 

There was only one option left to Deimon, and it wasn’t one that Hiruma liked to think about. 

However, he still sent off the hand signs to the fucking manager ( _she didn’t look to happy about it either_ ) and watched her run off with the recordings she had made of the plays up to now.  Of course, Anezaki leaving wasn’t exactly subtle so the other Devil Bats noticed and clued in to Hiruma having a plan.  Sena gave him a look though, like the kid _knew_ Hiruma’s only plan was an absolute last resort. 

In the meantime, he rearranged his power players to give the little running back some buffers between him and Mr. Trident Tackle ( _not that they ended up working_ ).  In the following run plays though, Sena regained some of his self-confidence by dancing around the idiot Ikari and making consecutive first downs.  He and Shin had what seemed to be an exchange of compliments, except that was Demon shining out of Sena’s eyes.  Demon simply didn’t _do_ compliments. 

They made up enough distance for Musashi to get another kick in, but by now people were starting to realize that Deimon was taking too long in getting points.  So he huddled them up and explained that he didn’t have a fucking clue how to defeat Shin, but he would find one with Anezaki and Doburoku during the 20 minutes of halftime.  Kurita asked if such a weak point even existed. 

An image of Agon hitting the dirt under Sena’s arm flashed through Hiruma’s mind.  _Such a thing as an invincible guy doesn’t exist in this world._

So the Devil Bats gave him their faith and promised to hold the gap at 7 points for the remaining four and a half minutes.  In an attempt to cut off the Everest Pass Hiruma put both the fucking monkey and the fucking idiot on marking Sakuraba, but that tool Takami simply gave the ball to Shin and then, as if to rub salt in the wound, completed an Everest Pass with the double mark.  And they kept at it, pulling closer and closer, until there was 13 seconds left to halftime and Ojou was in scoring position. 

Then something peculiar happened. 

Takami, set to pass to Sakuraba, stalled his throw and instead passed to some no name player near the sideline.  In that moment something had frightened him.  

The blond quarterback would analyze that moment later, once they survived the first half and he had solved the puzzle of Shin.  Right now however, No Name had a clear shot to the end zone and _nobody could get over in time goddammit-_

Barely a foot from the goal line, Demon brutally shoves the White Knight off the field.  The rage persona was having none of Ojou’s shit and Deimon was saved by the skin of her teeth once again. 

It was halftime, and the rain was picking up again.  The Ojou players retreated to their bus and Doburoku rolled up in a brand new 18-wheeler that doubled as the Devil Bat locker room.  Anezaki was already inside looking footage of Shin. 

She also set a timer. 

They went over _everything._   Every step, every reach, every tiny movement Shin made, until the solution revealed itself; the utterly impossible solution.

Sena was going to have to beat Shin with _strength._

Shin’s run was 4.2 for the forty, exactly the same as Sena’s; but Shin had the advantage of reach.  Upon acceleration, he extends his arm and unleashes the bone-breaking Trident Tackle.  To counter this, Sena would have to accelerate at the same time and tackle Shin before he could fully extend his arm.  They needed a miracle. 

Hiruma tried not to listen as the kids discussed the physical differences between Shin and Sena ( _he could out-bench press Sena by a hundred kilograms and outweighed him by almost 30kg, the kid was gonna get killed_ ) because he knew that the small brunette had something extra to pull him through, something that let him walk in a world of monsters without hesitating.  Something that had the gall to claim Hiruma Yoichi as his own so many months ago in the middle of American Mid-West. 

He had a Demon.

Musashi kicked the ball with all his might and parted the clouds above them.  Right off the bat, Shin and Sena met in the middle.  Demon put all his power into the Heart Bump to take Shin down and-

Was blocked.  Shin blocked the bump with his arm and sent the running back flying back into the mud.  But it was okay, because he stood back up and still had that same fire in his eyes ( _even if he didn’t have a fucking clue what to do next_ ).

But that fire was catchy, it seemed, because suddenly the whole team was flaming, and every single one of them were quite obviously pointed at Shin.  Hiruma almost called a timeout to settle them down before deciding that would be counterproductive. 

They were 15 yards from Deimon’s goal line and Takami threw his pass.  Sakuraba dodged around the monkey’s bump and took off down the field, and the monkey took off after him, not bothering to turn back for a glance at the ball.

He was right in front of Sakuraba when he jumped for the ball that _he still couldn’t see_ and probably would have caught it too, if the tall blond hadn’t jumped as well, disregarding the imminent risk of collision. 

But that was part of Monta’s plan; Monta didn’t need to catch the ball, he just wanted to knock it out of Sakuraba’s reach.  The ball flew from the pair into Hiruma’s own arms for an interception.  It was Deimon’s offence. 

But first, Hiruma wanted to know how the fuck the monkey had managed to see the pass from the back of his head. 

The receiver gave a proper answer but all Hiruma could hear was _ten years’ experience chasing balls._   The blond deduced that the monkey could probably only manage to see about 60% of Takami’s trajectories because he’s unfamiliar with Takami’s passes.  On the other hand, he had caught so many of _Hiruma’s_ passes, that he should see them with 100% accuracy.  The quarterback named this move the Devil Backfire and sent the monkey out to execute it. 

_Resounding success!_

The catch had left such a significant impact, that the Ojou coach called a timeout.  In the interim, some _wingnut_ waltzed out onto the field to congratulate Monta on such an amazing catch.  That in itself would have been a nonissue if said wingnut hadn’t turned out to be Honjou fucking Masaru, goddamn hero to the fucking monkey, who was tearing up and _now would have to be benched until he calms down shitshitshit-_

_“For me, he’s like a MAX God, but for him, I’m just another fanboy; he doesn’t remember me.  I won’t be overcome by emotion in the middle of a match.  Except during painful times, a man shouldn’t cry.”_

Well, if that’s his decision, may as well honour it; Monta would be in every play moving forward. _Kekeke…_

For a while, the monkey was unbeatable, earning first down after first down, until Deimon was right in front of Ojou’s goal line.  Shin came forward to blitz Hiruma and Ootawara was marking Monta.  Monta caught the ball anyway and whipped right around the large lineman.

And ran right into Ikari and Sakuraba.

It didn’t matter though, because Sena had run up behind Monta and had now shoved his shoulder into Ikari’s gut ( _had to hurt, Sena has such bony shoulders_ ), opening a gap for Monta to slip through. 

The pair of them scored the first touchdown against the White Knights _in the entire Kantou Tournament._

Musashi got his kick in and Hiruma was reveling in the rather put-out look on Takami’s face when there was some kind of Honjou-related ruckus being caused by the idiots on his team and suddenly some weird otaku bonding between Monta and Sakuraba, and really what the fuck was going on, _get your asses back into formation, you shitheads!_

A new challenge had been issued: a tag-team battle, Sena and Monta vs Shin and Sakuraba.

Using the height of the Everest Pass for super short passes to neutralize Monta’s Devil Backfire, and having Shin’s Ballista cover Sakuraba’s landing had made for an exceptionally effective weapon.  The announcer named it the Sagittarius and it scored another touchdown.  The score was now 20-13 in Ojou’s favour. 

The only move they could use in this scenario was a long pass to Monta and it was obvious as fuck to Ojou that Deimon had no other options.  The White Knights were prepared. 

Sakuraba stalled the monkey with a bump, which gave Shin just enough time to break through the line to blitz Hiruma.  The quarterback would have been skewered immediately if his little light speed shield hadn’t appeared to defend him.  Time slowed for a moment as Sena’s head turned to the audience and Hiruma could hear the voice of Kongo fucking Agon in the stands and then Demon was in front of him his arm up, blocking Shin’s tackle.

_…blocking Shin’s tackle._

The block only lasted 0.2 seconds, before Demon turned back into Sena and the running back caved to the pain, allowing Shin’s other arm to skewer both Sena and Hiruma.  But it was okay, because now Hiruma could count on at least 0.2 seconds of Demon’s blocking.  The next play was another pass, to Yukimitsu this time, but only gained two yards.  Their next advance was their last and they needed at least eight yards to keep attacking. They absolutely needed a long pass.

Monta held up his end of the bargain as best as he could, before he was surrounded by Ojou’s safeties and then Shin was busting through the line _again_ and Hiruma was _gonna get sacked-_

Except that they weren’t going with a pass. _Kekeke…_

Sena was tearing up the field with ball dodging around bigger and bigger players; even when it looked like Ootawara was going to slam him, Komusubi appeared from nowhere to take the hit for him ( _and it was a_ hit _.  The short lineman’s nose was bleeding when he’d been hit in the ribs_ ), allowing the running back to continue moving into the clear. 

Until Shin caught up.

Now, theoretically, when two objects move at the same speed, the one behind will not catch the one in front.  Shin took that theory and tossed it out the window by diving for Sena and catching the back of smaller player’s shoe with One.  Fucking.  Finger _._

_A fucking FINGER!!_

Sena was close enough to the goal line to get a touchdown by reaching out with the ball, but this was a tag team battle.  And Monta wasn’t quite strong enough to hold Sakuraba.  The tall blond slapped the ball out of Sena’s hands, and right into Shin’s. 

It was Ojou’s ball. 

Hiruma took a breath and produced two cards from his playbook.  One was a safe play, a relatively smart decision; the other was an all-or-nothing gamble that meant Deimon’s defeat if it fail-

The blond hadn’t even finished talking when the death card had been snapped up out of his hand by his raging players (and Sena).  Of course, when the team tried to pretend that Deimon wasn’t planning anything, it became _completely obvious_ that Deimon was planning something and the blond just couldn’t help but laugh at his psychologically inept team. 

Hiruma waltzed over to the White Knights and told them that in this scenario, with Deimon’s back against the wall, right in front of Ojou’s goal line, there was no way ‘the most offensive team in the tournament’ could _not_ be planning something.  Ideally, they’d get scared and go with a safe run play, but knowing Takami, that was absolutely never going to happen. 

Sure enough, Ojou set up for the Sagittarius with its 100% success rate.  Hiruma put Deimon’s plan into motion.  Sena ran up to Monta so that they may both mark Sakuraba, leaving the back virtually empty. 

And then he blitzed Takami-

Except Shin was there to tackle him-

And then _Monta_ blitzed Takami-

Except Takami was already started to throw his pass-

Monta took out Takami’s leg, knocking them both plus the ball to ground, earning a safety and was done with all this drama.  Hiruma could hear Doburoku mumbling about how this wasn’t good for his heart. 

The safety earned Deimon two points and another turn at offence.  Now that Hiruma had some room to breathe, he decided to name Sena’s new arm attack the Devil Stungun.  Everyone started being unreasonable and hilarious, which was good because everyone settled back into a good vibe and the Devil Bats set back up to attack, and attack, and _attack._   Hiruma himself scored a touchdown.  And then Ojou scored, and then Deimon scored, and so forth until the final three minutes of the game.  The score was 34-29 to Ojou. 

There was only 40 yards to Ojou’s goal line.  Yukimitsu collapsed.  Monta seemed right on the verge of following him.  Hiruma told him that they couldn’t afford to let Ojou see that he wasn’t capable of catching passes anymore.  Sena told him that Monta saved them when Sena couldn’t move against Shin, so now that Monta couldn’t move Sena would pick up the slack. 

Sena was shoved into the dirt by Shin and dropped the ball.  Monta knocked the ball (and Sakuraba) out of bounds, so it was still Deimon’s ball and only three yards now from Ojou’s goal.  Then he face planted right into ‘Honjou-san’s’ arms. 

_Oh, so he does remember Monta._

The emotional jolt of this revelation seemed to give the receiver at least one more play’s worth of energy.  Sena had an idea.

The entire team pushes through the center for a Devil Bat Dive except Monta who will be jumping for a pass on the side, and Hiruma will make a split second decision to go with either a pass or a run.  There was a minute and 55 seconds left.

The first try was a Devil Bat Dive; Ootawara smacked the kid down mere inches from the goal line and the Dive was stopped for the first time ever. 

The next one was a super low Devil Bat Dive, and was crushed by Shin himself one centimeter from the goal line.

There was one minute and fifteen seconds left on the clock and it was Deimon’s last offence.  For this last centimeter both the shorties would jump; Hiruma handed the ball off to Sena who would pass to Monta in the middle of his Dive. 

For a split second, it seemed that Sakuraba had thwarted them.  He had never taken his eyes off the monkey.  That is, until he almost had the ball.

Monta took a page from Shin’s book and reached with a single arm.  He snatched up the ball from right in front of Sakuraba’s eyes and scored a touchdown. 

34-35 for Deimon and one minute ten seconds left. 

Ootawara lost his shit. 

Musashi’s kick was successful, but Ojou managed to push the starting line to the middle of the field.  The normally happy-go-lucky Ojou lineman had turned into something of a rabid bear, and all of Deimon’s key players were exhausted.  It was Monta’s idea to slap faces to bring back fighting spirit.  It was a very Deimon like method, Hiruma was kind of proud. 

It didn’t change the fact that Ootawara was still tearing through the Deimon players like so much wet paper.  Sena took a particularly nasty hit and had to be benched for a bloody nose.  The blond quarterback could see the frustrated helplessness in his ace’s eyes and knew that it was going to be rough on him to sit and watch when he could be helping. 

Deimon had another player with that same look in his eyes. 

Yukimitsu would substitute for Sena even when he had absolutely zero stamina left because he had that look. 

Shin shredded him. 

The last remaining seconds were ticking down even as Juumonji and Kuroki were struggling to hold Shin just ahead of the goal line and at this rate Shin was gonna score with zero seconds left and _there would be no way to take back the points-_

Yukimitsu shoved Shin over the goal with one second left on the clock.  In allowing the touchdown to succeed, the scholar seized an opportunity for Deimon to stay alive.  Hiruma was just a little bit honoured to serve on the same field as him. 

There was a loud smack as Sena high fived Yukimitsu; as Demon tagged back onto the field. 

Takami was a complete _son of a bitch_ and had Ootawara perform the kick, which promptly went everywhere.  By some miracle, Monta managed to get his arms around it and started to run with it but…

Yeah, with his exhaustion, there was no way he could get past the Ojou defense and score, and with his lack of control there was no way he could pass to Sena on the other side of the field.  As long as Monta held the ball, chances of victory were 0% and Hiruma couldn’t communicate to get Sena moving fast enough-

Except Sena was already moving.  _Demon_ was already moving. 

Of the original Sena Trio, Demon had always known Hiruma just a little bit better than the others.  He knew what had been going through the blond quarterback’s mind and moved based on that.  He moved to accept a handoff from Monta, which gave Hiruma a chance to analyze their surroundings and figure out their next move. 

If Demon was to get the ball all the way down the field to score in a single play, then the rest of Ojou needed to be distracted even if only for a moment.  So Hiruma called for a huddle of himself, Sena, Monta, and Taki right in the middle of the play.  There was no time to explain his idea; he could only fold his arms across his chest as if he was holding the ball.  He felt a surge of relief when the monkey and the idiot mimicked him, and the four of them broke huddle to run. 

Logically, Eyeshield 21 would have the ball, but Takami couldn’t bet on that.  It was the exact type of move in which Deimon would do the exact opposite of what anybody else would do.  With this thought, Ojou was frozen with doubt for just long enough to let Demon slip past them.  There was only the Last Boss now.

The very last Shin vs Sena. 

The first strike from Shin had him catching the back of Sena’s glove with his ring and pinky finger.  The glove tore clean off but Demon had been pulled significantly off balance and was falling.

Those gloves had been Hiruma’s very first present to Sena, from defeating Shin the first time.  Watching the linebacker shred them made Hiruma want to rip his throat out.

It made Demon angry too and Demon’s anger didn’t let him fall completely to the ground.  Instead, he regained his balance and continued running; straight into Shin.  Demon used the Devil Bat Ghost to cut right, Shin extended his arm, Demon jumped, Shin re-extended his arm, Demon blocked-

Using a combination of the Devil Bat Dive and the Devil Stungun to ricochet off of Shin’s arm, for just an instant, forced Demon’s body past light speed, past human _limits_ , into the world of 4.1 seconds of the 40 yard dash, and for that one moment, Kobayakawa Sena _flew._

Hiruma swore he fell in love with him all over again.

The referee declared a touchdown and a great scream of victory tore past Sena’s lips.

The Perfect Player had been defeated by the Demon. 


	31. to The Beasts Feeding On Victory

Takami had a look on his face that spoke of a commander collecting his dead after losing a battle as he passed his captaincy to Shin.  Hiruma distracted his players to allow his rival quarterback a moment to mourn his losses. 

Shin had come over to congratulate Sena and there was a moment where Sena himself received it, but then Sena was gone and Demon was responding to Shin’s challenge in kind. 

It was time to prepare for the finals, against either Seibu or Hakushuu. 

_Of course, some of them needed new uniforms first._

Sena’s jersey was _shredded_ from his repeated confrontations with Shin.  The left shoulder was pretty much gone and there were tears up and down the sides.  Not to mention his gloves.  Sena actually found Hiruma after the game to apologize for the damage.  He held the few scraps of fabric he could find from the field and looked damn near ready to cry over them.  Hiruma closed his larger hand over Sena’s and told him that all good soldiers suffer battle scars.  He then kissed him until the brunette could barely breathe. 

The team’s popularity had picked up significantly at the school.  All day, people kept stopping to congratulate them and on more than one occasion ask for an autograph.  It was coming back from such an encounter that Hiruma found the club room packed with enough flowers to stock three stores.  Anezaki had the ridiculous notion that the blond himself purchased them. 

As it turned out, the flowers had been a gift.  On the surface, it appeared that one Maruko Reiji was an exceptionally generous individual who wanted to congratulate Deimon on making it to the tournament finals.  But underneath that, there was this frightening feeling.  Hiruma looked around at the room full of flowers and felt mildly violated, like the fucking eyelashes was saying _we’re watching you and we have the power here._

Just like Musashi said, the guy acted like a yakuza.

The team was sufficiently distracted when, along with the flowers, a letter for Sena specifically was delivered too.  A letter from Himuro Maruko, the beautiful third year manager of Hakushuu, asking to meet. 

The blond quarterback didn’t bother listening to the rambling about love letters ( _there’s no way it was such a thing and even if it was, Sena belonged to_ Hiruma).  Instead, he readied his audio equipment because Himuro was going to end up leaking information whether she meant to or not.  The kid didn’t question or even seem surprised when the blond attached it tiny microphone to his shirt collar on his way out. 

The kid stuck out like a sore thumb in the fancy-shmancy atmosphere of the indoor shopping mall where Himuro asked to meet.  Hiruma made himself comfortable on the balcony of one of the second floor shops so that he could watch everything in addition to listening.  It had the added bonus of a fair distance of the group of morons who came to spy on Sena’s ‘love confession’.

_Seriously?  Anezaki is a given, but what the Hell are the rest of them doing down there?_

The first surprise was when Riku appeared, apparently also invited by Himuro.  Riku seemed just as surprised to find Sena there, but Hiruma figured the Hakushuu manager would have contacted Seibu as well as Deimon.  When the woman herself appeared, all business, Hiruma’s suspicions were confirmed. 

She wanted both Seibu and Deimon to forfeit. 

Himuro had pulled the aces of both teams and was trying to convince them to give up their respective matches by halftime to spare their respective players as much harm as possible.  She was kind enough to bring a DVD featuring Gaoh’s skills.

Evidently, she also brought Gaoh himself by accident. 

Riku rescued the DVD, Sena rescued Himuro, and Gaoh destroyed the table and two chairs all in a single palm strike. 

Maruko could complain all he liked about Gaoh going overboard, but Hiruma recognized a calculated intimidation tactic when he saw one.  It was straight up impossible for Maruko to honestly believe that Gaoh _wouldn’t_ trash the place, given half a chance and an up close brush with that kind of power was much more frightening than watching it on video.  If anything, the Hakushuu quarterback was trying to drive Himuro’s point home. 

_Give up or get hurt._

After all, Hakushuu advances to the nationals that much easier if its opponents in the next two rounds both forfeit.  

Once the confrontation ended, Marco snagged the DVD back and Riku took off to make his report back to his team.  Sena, for his part, muttered into his microphone that he’d head out with the other members of Deimon who had at this point come out of hiding.  Hiruma would call the kid later, right now he was going to find Shien and use him as a guinea pig for a few anti-Gaoh strategies.

As expected, Shien knew exactly why the blond had deigned to share the information with him.  What was completely _unexpected_ was the very Deimon-like strategy the cowboy intended to implement.  For someone who pretended to be so washed out, he certainly was pulling out all the stops with this one. 

If you _can’t_ stop Gaoh, then _don’t_.

As long as Shien threw the ball before Gaoh reached him, he would be safe.  If his throw was even 0.1 second too slow, Gaoh would _waste_ him.  It was an incredibly risky gamble that put Shien’s life at risk ( _maybe literally_ ).  Hiruma was a little honoured to have inspired this kill or be killed strategy. 

Hiruma didn’t wish Shien luck, because the blond simply doesn’t do things like that, but the look the cowboy gave him as he left implied that Shien just assumed luck was wished.  As he walked home, Hiruma thought about which team he actually wanted to win the upcoming match. 

The kids were all rooting for Seibu, to avenge their loss from the Fall Tokyo Tournament, but if the quarterback was 100% honest with himself ( _and he always was_ ) he didn’t think they could beat Seibu as they were.  Sena might be able to beat Riku and Monta might be able to beat Tetsuma and they’d have Musashi from the beginning this time, but Shien and Hiruma knew each other’s thought processes too well.  They were too evenly matched for Hiruma to comfortably calculate numbers and plan tactics, and not in the same way that they were matched with Ojou or Shinryuuji.  Defensive Ojou was fundamentally different than the offensive Deimon and Shiunryuuji’s core players were the Kongo brothers whom Hiruma could manipulate and work around.  Deimon and Seibu were practically parallels of each other in team makeup and play style. 

On the other hand, Hakushuu was an enigma.  Yes, they’d seen and heard a lot about Gaoh’s strength and ferocity, but one man does not make a team.  Maruko was a crafty little SOB, but Hiruma didn’t yet know how that translated onto the field, and then there were all the others players.  Research into the SIC district tournament only showed Gaoh dominating everything in his path, and digging into the team’s previous years equated to _nothing_ because the starting lineups consisted mostly of first year students. 

Hiruma needed a moment to process that thought whenever it appeared: Gaoh and Sena were _the same age._

Upon reaching his apartment Hiruma decided that, with the information at his disposal, he would root for Seibu as the Devil he knew. 

If he woke up the following morning in a cold sweat from images in his mind of Gaoh Rikiya surrounded by broken bodies in red jerseys, a bloodied helmet with a cracked eye shield in his fist, well, nobody had to know.


	32. to The Tokyo Dome Of The Decisive Battle

The team arrived at the arena with all of its usual shenanigans, and found the fucking fat ass and mini fat ass already sitting there, eyes completely bloodshot from the completely unnecessary all-nighter they just pulled. 

The announcer started introducing players as they walked out beginning with Seibu ( _it would appear that Monta seems to have broken through Tetsuma’s obedience based exterior_ ).  Upon Shien’s introduction, Hiruma overheard Maruko explaining to his team about who Shien actually was and where he came from.  The crafty little bugger seemed to have done his research.  What was much more interesting to Hiruma though, was what happened when the Hakushuu Dinosaurs were introduced. 

First, Maruko was introduced as a ‘ball-handling expert and control tower’, which gave Hiruma some clearer insight into the Hakushuu quarterback’s skills.  Second, the player that entered the field upon Gaoh’s introduction ( _the right arm of Hakushuu apparently_ ) was definitely _not_ Gaoh.  Instead a skinny, effeminate individual walked onto the field, much to everyone’s confusion ( _prompting a few wild theories about shrinking_ ).  He ( _that’s a guy right?_ ) practically sparkled as he put his hand to face, like he was feverish and about to faint.  The announcer amended her intro, referring to this person as Kisaragi Hiromi. 

The _left_ arm of Hakushuu.

Hiruma let that information roll around in his head for a minute as the two teams set up for the first play.  Sparkly, near-fainting Kisaragi was on the same level as the monster that was Gaoh. 

He must have been hiding one Hell of a skill. 

The game began with Seibu’s offense, and it was clear how the Hakushuu players were expecting this to go.  Maruko shrugged, Himuro looked away, and Gaoh…

…was struck dumb when Shien threw the ball before the lineman got within a foot of him. 

By the time Gaoh noticed, he was a scant few inches from Shien’s face and Riku had caught the ball for a four yard gain.  The cowboy hadn’t even flinched.  Gaoh grinned.

The match continued in that fashion; Shien used short passes to advance his line and prevent Gaoh from reaching him until Seibu scored the first touchdown.  Some third year on the Hakushuu bench had a meltdown and was ready to throw in the towel right then and there. 

Until Hakushuu scored its own touchdown, in which Maruko had the ball and ran in the wake of Gaoh’s destruction.  No tricks, barely any strategy, no way to stop it. 

But that was fine; like Deimon, Seibu was all about offense.  If they score 99 points, then we’ll score 100.  Riku reinforced this point by immediately scoring a touchdown of his own.  The short blond’s Roping Rodeo Drive was a genius technique, and it intrigued Hiruma that Maruko figured it out after only seeing it once.  The touchdown was followed by an onside kick that allowed Seibu to reclaim possession of the ball.  It was clear that the Wild Gunmen had completely given up on any semblance of defence in order to continue attacking.  Between Shien’s Quick-Draw, Riku’s Rodeo Drive, and Tetsuma being generally unstoppable, everything was going according to Shien’s plan. 

Until he hesitated. 

Hiruma didn’t know what happened.  There were no distractions on the field, no reason for Shien to lose focus.  He made eye contact with Tetsuma, prepared his throw and just… paused.  His eyes glazed over for a moment before he got really excited, and he seemed to say something… oh.

_Are you shitting me!?_

Why? _Why?_ Why would Shien choose _now_ to finally say the words Christmas Bowl?  Whatever epiphany he had cost him the precious seconds he needed to throw the ball; the seconds he needed to save himself.

Gaoh wasted him from the left side.  His arm shattered just below his shoulder and just above his wrist.  His left knee awkwardly twisted and there was a splatter of blood on the ground from where his helmet must have torn at his ear as it flew off.  His eyes were wide and his face was pale from the shock of the impact.  He laid in the dirt like a broken doll. 

He laid there like a _corpse_. 

Shivers went up and down Hiruma’s spine as he looked down on the spectacle from the stands.  From the statistics alone, the blond knew this would happen, that it was a miracle in and of itself Shien had lasted this long.  Shien had done everything Hiruma would do, Seibu had done everything Deimon would do, there wasn’t a single decision that the blond would have changed. 

And _still_ Shien was dropped like a sack of bricks. 

Hiruma knew he was next. 

He wasn’t the only one. 

Next to him, a small brunet running back went very still.  His little spine straightened, his tiny hands curled into fists, and his short legs tensed.  Demon turned to look at Hiruma.

The rage persona didn’t say anything; he didn’t have to.  His gaze said everything.  It said that Deimon and Seibu were similar, but not identical.  It said that Deimon would go into her match with Hakushuu with so much more information than Seibu had.  It said that just because Seibu did everything Deimon _would_ do, didn’t mean Seibu did everything that Deimon _could_ do. 

Hiruma very badly wanted to take comfort in that gaze.  The analytical side of his brain wouldn’t let him. 

The gaze also said they would be having words about this later. 

Hiruma returned his focus to the field.  Shien had been carted off and the Gunmen were attempting to regroup.  They weren’t getting very far when Tetsuma screamed. 

In hindsight, Hiruma supposed the receiver’s reaction should have been expected.  Tetsuma had been following Shien around since they were both four years old and now, Shien couldn’t be followed anywhere.   In direct response, the ever obedient, ever reliable Tetsuma snapped and started to rush Gaoh.  Riku started calling the shots, following Tetsuma’s lead, trying to break through the impenetrable wall Gaoh erected. 

It didn’t work.

With three minutes left on the clock, Seibu fell 50 points behind and Tetsuma too had to be carted off the field.  You could hear in Monta’s voice that his heart was breaking.  And still Riku did not give in.  He was the only key player left still standing and he was almost delirious with exhaustion, but he would _not_ throw in the towel and he demanded the same of his remaining players.  Hiruma distinctly heard him scream “ _If it were Deimon, they wouldn’t give up!_ ”

The kid had earned more than a little bit of Hiruma’s respect today. 

Unfortunately, all the determination in the world could not save the Gunmen.  The match ended when Riku, having stood back up after taking Gaoh’s tackle, passed clean out cold from pushing himself too far. 

Hakushuu was meeting Deimon for the finals of the Kantou Tournament. 

Hiruma felt sick. 

He managed to disguise and distract himself from the anxiety by pushing Kurita forward to accept Gaoh’s challenge ( _mostly because he was Deimon’s only hope in terms of strength_ ), and decided to cause a little mayhem to make himself feel better. 

So he dragged the Devil Bats out to the Tokyo Dome where the final match would be held.  He blackmailed a few guards, picked a few locks, and messed with everybody’s head until not only were they playing baseball, but he was winning. The blond was beginning to feel like his old self again just as the game devolved into something weird. 

However, the idea of fighting Goah was still bothering the fucking fat ass, so he made some calls and dragged a few idiots out of bed to come play with them.  He also called Banba, who would speak to Kurita, lineman to lineman. 

And he did. 

The face he made when he heard Hiruma’s whole plan for Kurita was hilarious as well.  _Kekeke…_

With it decided that Kurita would spend the week at a boxing gym with the Taiyou Sphinx and everybody else packed up and headed home. 

Hiruma and Sena ended up walking alone together. 

The blond was trying not to look at his companion.  Every time he did, he saw Riku hitting the dirt.  His mind had started to overlay the small blond with Sena and the sick feeling started to come back. 

He still wasn’t looking at Sena when small fingers intertwined with his.  That was okay though, because Sena wasn’t looking at him either, even as he spoke. 

“ _Everything will be fine.  Everything will be fine because not only will we beat Hakushuu and go to the Christmas Bowl, but we will also win at the Christmas Bowl too.  And we need you for both those matches.  We need everybody for both those matches._ ” The brunet stopped walking, tugging on Hiruma’s arm so that he stopped too, and used his free hand to force the blond to look him in the eyes.  “ _Everything will be fine because we will all protect each other and nobody will get hurt like Kid-san and Tetsuma-san did today._

The smaller player reached up and planted a firm little kiss on Hiruma’s lips to drive the point home before he carried on walking, pulling Hiruma along with him. Even as the blond decided that Sena’s calm determination would be what the team needed in a quarterback after Hiruma was removed from the game, he noticed that he no longer felt sick. 

With a few simple sentences, a kiss, and hands interwoven, Kobayakawa Sena had banished any trace of anxiety from Hiruma’s mind.  The blond tightened his fingers around the kid’s and smiled. 


	33. to The Light Of A Dream

Training recommenced early the next morning with running.  Kurita had been separated for his own training, so Hiruma drove them at an even faster pace than usual.  It went pretty much as expected, and every now and then Hiruma would look over and see Demon’s eyes shining out of Sena’s face. 

It usually happened when someone mentioned Gaoh. 

At first it made Hiruma a little nervous; if Demon decided to take out his frustration on some random passer-by, he ( _and by extension the team_ ) could get in a lot of trouble.  Oddly enough, it was Riku that assuaged his fears.

_No, not directly.  Idiots…_

The blond running back had swung by to drop off a video recording of the Hakushuu/Seibu match.  He also dropped a lecture on whatever-the-fuck-it-was on Sena and Monta, because he just couldn’t bloody help himself.  Demon…

…did nothing.  He didn’t even wake up. 

Hiruma then understood that Demon was purposefully storing up all his rage to be unleashed on Hakushuu.  Hakushuu and no one else.  It was relieving in a way. 

It also reaffirmed his decision regarding changing players when Gaoh inevitably took him out. 

He had hoped to do this quietly; hand off the forms to Anezaki at her locker, get to practice, nobody notices anything out of the ordinary.  He didn’t plan for Suzuna. 

_She technically isn’t even a Deimon student, where the heck did she pop out from?_

Well whatever.  It was mildly amusing to listen to Sena try and persuade the monkey and brother fish lips that _no, that cannot possibly be a love letter._ It was decidedly _not_ amusing when the fucking manager tore up the envelope without even opening it and declaring that now Hiruma had no choice but to not get hurt, as if he could say _whoops, sorry Gaoh, we don’t have a backup plan so you can’t tackle me-_

She walked off with tears in her eyes.  Hiruma could hear Demon ordering the boys out to practice.  They drove themselves even harder than usual, and a small part of Hiruma that he didn’t like to admit to having was both ecstatically grateful and abjectly terrified that they would all go to such lengths to protect him. 

Game day arrived.

Just as everyone started wondering if Kurita was going to show, the fucking fat ass appeared with Banba at his back.  There was a moment where the fresh scars and determined face made him look really cool but, in true Kurita fashion, it wasn’t long before he burst into tears from ‘being so lonely training by himself’.  Hiruma was glad he packed the bubble wrap. 

It had been incredibly annoying having to fork out for Musashi’s new truck after last time. 

While the kids were awe at Kurita’s ability to pop every single bubble and getting all mushy over the TV they had all signed months ago ( _did the fat ass really steal that from the school to reminisce?_ ), Hiruma decided to test his mental strength.  After all it was impossible to increase the lineman’s physical strength in only one week ( _thank you, Banba, already knew that_ ).  So he piled the pressure on Kurita’s shoulders and was incredibly pleased when, instead of running off to hide in a box again, the large teen stood up straight and declared that he would protect everybody. 

Just in time for Gaoh’s declaration of war. 

Even though he confessed to be using enough strength to break a normal man’s wrist in his grip on Kurita’s arm, Gaoh didn’t seem at all interested in causing any trouble.  In fact, he seemed to be looking forward even more to the match.  He probably would have stuck around if the weird third year from the Seibu match didn’t start running his mouth about weak opponents and how easily they defeated Banba. 

Say what you would about Gaoh, but he doesn’t tolerate anything less than the utmost respect for his rivals. 

Maruko managed to convince Gaoh to deliver his punishment back on the bus so as to avoid a scene, but he didn’t much seem to care that the third year had just thrown his athletic career away.  The quarterback’s casual disregard for his own teammates’ well-being set Hiruma’s teeth on edge.  It was different from the way was violent with the Devil Bats; Hiruma didn’t give them anything more than what they could take. 

Well, the blond wouldn’t let it shake him one way or the other.  Not even when Maruko approached Deimon’s bench with a crate full of cola as an ‘apology for the rude things Tengu-senpai said’.

The brothers immediately thought it was poisoned.  Hiruma knew it wasn’t on the grounds that such an underhanded trick would be too easily traced back to Maruko.  He took a cola himself and gave three to Cereberus. 

It was amusing that Maruko and the kids seem to think that trading slots way back when the tournament lottery was still happening would have made any difference.  Deimon would have defeated Taiyou and Seibu and Gaou would have broken Agon and Takami and the final match would still be Deimon vs Hakushuu. 

Hiruma’s imagination superimposed Takami on Shien’s prone, broken form and he had to struggle to maintain the grin on his face.  He and Maruko moved onto the field for the coin toss. 

Like with Ojou, there was really no point to the coin toss other than formality.  Maruko would take defence so that Gaoh could crush Hiruma as soon as possible and Hiruma would choose offence because, really, what else would he choose?

The match began with the plan that put such a constipated look on Banba’s face.  It started with the ‘Lonely Center’ strategy.

_Gaoh wants a one-on-one with Kurita?  That’s exactly what he’s gonna get._

The blond quarterback could pick out Takami’s voice in the stands muttering about how _of course Hiruma would take the exact opposite approach to Gaoh than anybody else._   Hiruma wasn’t as fast as Shien to throw, so he couldn’t leave himself _completely_ defenseless, but he could come pretty damn close.  Kurita was now _literally_ the only Devil Bat in any position to stop Gaoh. 

Gaoh was suitably impressed and wouldn’t stop running his mouth until Hiruma interrupted so they could _start the damn match already._

Kurita was immediately toppled.  But he stood back up so it was fine. 

The first round went to Kurita and Deimon.  Hiruma had enough time to pitch a long pass that was perfect for Monta, and Sena bolted down the field to back him up.  The combo play was based of Shin and Sakuraba’s Sagittarius and scored them a touchdown. 

Gaoh approached Kurita during Deimon’s typical celebration ( _were the linemen fighting?  Why the fuck were the linemen fighting?_ ).  He admitted that Kurita was certainly stronger than he had anticipated and yet, there was no way Kurita was going to win today.  He was not smug when he said this; he was horribly disappointed.  The large first year wouldn’t explain in words what the difference between them was, instead agreeing to show him during the following plays.  It was Hakushuu’s offense and Hiruma already knew what they were going to do. 

As predicted, the Dinosaurs went with the ‘North-South’ strategy.  Gaoh shoved open a hole in the line, Maruko ran through it and earned first down after first down until finally it was a touchdown. 

As an offensive lineman, Kurita would only have to hold Gaoh off until Hiruma threw the ball.  As a defensive lineman, Kurita has to stop Gaoh entirely, which is a very different task.  A task that he has up to this point been incapable of performing.

Hakushuu went for the two point conversion rather than the try-for-point kick, again which Hiruma anticipated.  The meant where Deimon earned seven points with a touchdown and a kick, Hakushuu earned eight points with a touchdown and a conversion.  Maruko seemed to expect that this information would shake them up a little, but he forgot.  Deimon had gone almost the entire Fall Tournament without a reliable kicker, and as such was well used to this kind of disadvantage.  The kids didn’t even blink because they knew that the only thing to do was to simply score more touchdowns than Hakushuu. 

Reusing earlier strategies brought Deimon within sight of Hakushuu’s end zone, but that was when an enigma appeared on the field.  The only thing Hiruma knew about Kisaragi Hiromi was that he had a weak body and average speed and jumping power.  However, as Yukimitsu pointed out, there must have been a reason that was the ‘left arm’ to Gaoh’s ‘right arm’.  Monta lined up against the skinny player and immediately voiced a gut feeling that there was more to this guy than was visible. 

Kisaragi politely introduced himself in response. 

Hiruma was pretty sure the little back and forth Kisaragi and Maruko had was specifically designed to confuse Monta and throw him off balance, but Monta knew how to shut down his own brain and just run full tilt.  It came with the rather annoying side effect of him screaming the plan at the top of his lungs. 

Monta was faster than Kisaragi so it looked like everything would be fine at first.  However, just as Monta closed his hands around the ball to score a touchdown, the bony Dinosaur’s hidden talent made itself known. 

They called it the Ptera Claw. 

Kisaragi himself said it best.  “ _I may not be able to reach the height of the pass, but the height of the arm that’s catching it?  I can reach that._ ”

The blond cornerback’s skinny arms were perfect for winding around Monta’s own arm and snapping the ball out of his hands before they hit the ground.  It was quite obvious that Kisaragi intended to mark Monta from now on.

_Good._

Monta drew away Kisaragi, Kurita was holding Gaoh, and fucking _finally_ some of the other Hakushuu idiots took than damn bait and rushed Hiruma, freeing up Sena to accept a pass.  He caught it and bolted. 

All was good until he got close to the end zone.  There he seemed to get nervous, like he could sense an impending cliff.  He wound his way around Maruko, who was playing safety, and just as he seemed to score he turned around to reveal empty hands. 

And Maruko was running the opposite direction. 

It wasn’t until the ref called a touchdown for Hakushuu that everything made sense.  Maruko had stripped Sena of the ball while Sena was spinning around him.  His team had nicknamed the move the Screw Bite. That was going to be annoying. 

What was even more annoying was the way everyone on the Hakushuu bench seemed to think this was already their victory.

Well, the best way to figure out a countermeasure to the Screw Bite was to get a closer look at it.  He pulled Yukimitsu onto the field and sent him along with the monkey, the idiot, and the shrimp to guard Maruko and then made some laughable comment about four targets making for a pass with quadruple the strength.  His bluff sent a fair number of Hakushuu players running to back up Maruko, leaving a nice open space for him to run off with the ball himself. 

Maruko saw right through him. 

Hiruma baited Maruko into using his Screw Bite and managed to stick his foot out of bounds right before the ball got stolen, earning Deimon four yards.   Maruko was startled but praised the blond on his tactics.  Hiruma laughed and explained that he really didn’t care to beat Maruko one-on-one.  His eyes were on the Christmas Bowl.

The blond started mixing up the passes.  If they couldn’t get past Maruko, fine.   Just hit the dirt before he takes the ball.  Kisaragi won’t let them catch a long pass, no problem.  Catch a short one.  They started inching forward that way, four or five yards at a time. 

Sena pointed out a nasty atmosphere surrounding the Hakushuu bench.  That was Hiruma’s first clue that his time was up. 

It started with Kisaragi coming to blitz him.  He dodged backwards and made eye contact with Sena.  The shrimp read his mind and moved into position to receive the ball.

Except Kisaragi wasn’t blitzing him anymore.

The skinny player had swerved into Kurita.  He didn’t stand a chance obviously, but he distracted the lineman just enough that Gaoh could knock him over and move on to Hiruma.

At first Hiruma thought _he can’t tackle me until Kisaragi hits the ground._

Then he caught a glance of ‘Tengu-senpai’ on the Hakushuu bench and remembered _Gaoh doesn’t give a flying fuck about his teammates._

Then the impact hit. 

…

_Where was he again?_

_Ah, that’s Gaoh there… must’ve been hit…_

_Can’t feel anything… it’s fine if the left arm is broken but…_

_Teammates are gathering around… they need to calm down… Calm down!_

_Can’t speak. Shit. Oh, here comes the pain… please not the right arm…_

_…_

_It’s the right arm._

_…_

All at once, the noise, the pain, the _everything_ hit Hiruma’s senses again and underneath Kurita’s wailing, he could hear a small voice, “ _Yoichi?_ ”

He turned to look for that voice, tell it that he’d be fine.  Instead his eyes fell on the football, abandoned on the field.  From there, his vision went black.

_Ah, shit.  This really hurts…_


	34. to Undead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SURPRISE NARRATOR

This was not happening.  This was _not happening._   Demon was going to break Gaoh’s neck, was going to march over there and _shatter his spine_ -

_No.  That’s not allowed._

But it’s _Yoichi_! Yoichi is hurt and down and something must be done about this, and Demon was going to do it-

_They didn’t break any rules; that’s just how the game is played.  Gaoh was just following orders._

Fine then.  Maruko is leader, Maruko ordered the tackle, Maruko sat back and smiled as the only man worthy of our heart had to get carted off the field on a gurney.  Maruko is going to die.  Right fucking now.

_That would only cause trouble for the team.  Trouble for Hiruma-san.  The game is still going on._

Then what are we _supposed to do!?_

_Hold the team together._

Sena came back to himself to find tears on his face.  He was pretty sure he was arguing with someone just now, but he couldn’t really remember and had more important things to think about anyway.  Hiruma-san used what little strength he had left to kick Kurita out of his despair and everyone was trying to decide who was qualified to be substitute quarterback. 

Taki was, well, _Taki_ and Monta couldn’t throw. Yukimitsu-san didn’t have the stamina.  Most of the linemen never handled the ball.  Ishimaru-san didn’t know half the rules.  Musashi-san wanted to take the role based purely on how dangerous it was going to be against Gaoh.  He wanted to take responsibility for starting the football team with Hiruma-san and Kurita-san.  But this wasn’t about the three of them anymore…

_We’ll do it.   We’ll take Yoichi’s place.  We’re the only one who can._

Sena claimed the title of quarterback for himself, and then wondered when he started thinking of Hiruma-san as Yoichi. 

This thought distracted him and he fumbled the first snap.  _Real smooth._

Well, it’s fine anyway! Sena grabbed it back! And Kurita-san was still…

Kurita-san was being knocked flat over.  He wasn’t getting back up very fast either.  Sena was defenseless.  A voice in his head was screaming _move your skinny ass_ but he wasn’t listening, distracted as he was by Gaoh’s hand nearly making contact with his ribcage. 

Komusubi-kun saved him from having his sternum crushed, but he knew he had bruises under his jersey.  No question. 

Komusubi-kun also barely lasted a second against Gaoh, but his sacrifice allowed Sena to take the ball and run out of bounds.  Deimon retained possession of the ball, but they had another more pressing problem.  Komusubi-kun had approached Kurita to reassure him, speaking as usual in the language of powerful men.  Kurita-san… didn’t understand.

_That’s a huge fucking problem right there._

Sena already knew that, thank you voice.  Thankfully it shut up in time for the following plays. 

Not that the quiet helped. 

Sena wasn’t tall enough to see past the linemen to find a target let alone throw to one.  Kurita-san was made of paper mache for how easily Gaoh was getting past him.  Hakushuu scored another touchdown.  Komusubi-kun was doing his best but he was taking a beating and he needed his master to _please stand up_. 

It was a show of how desperate he was that he spoke in a full sentence so that Kurita could understand. 

The next play failed too.

_Ugh, I can’t take this anymore.  We need to shake things up to take back the momentum.  Do something Yoichi would do._

Something Hiruma-san would do?  But Hiruma-san always did the opposite of what you’d expect him to do; that was the whole point-

Oh. 

It’s impossible to break through the center in this situation, right? So, let’s do that!  Sena and Komusubi-kun in a super low Devil Bat Dive, that would work!

Unless, you know, it didn’t work…

The teams lined up, and the two tiny players rushed. 

This wasn’t going to work, this wasn’t going to work, that’s it ­ _we’re dead-_

_Shut up, idiot, the cavalry’s here._

Sure enough, whatever funk Kurita-san had sunk into since Hiruma-san was taken out had shattered.  Kurita-san was going to stop Gaoh.  Kurita-san was _stopping_ Gaoh, _so let’s take this opportunity and run with it, shall we?_

And run Sena did.  He managed a first down by the time Marco-kun tackled him.  Komusubi-kun was crying with relief at his master’s recovery. 

The plays started moving in Deimon’s favour again.  Kurita-san and Gaoh were still pretty evenly matched, but now that Kurita-san was managing to stop Gaoh in his tracks, breaking through the center was now a much more viable option than the sudden death match it was last time.  It was exactly that play that Sena was lining up for when he noticed that the Hakushuu Dinosaurs seemed a lot more focused on defending the center. 

Then he blinked, because the Dinosaurs were still spread out to cover the sides.  And yet, something about their formation seemed strange. 

 _It’s not their formation_ now _that’s strange, it was their formation before.  If you look at it now, it’s pretty typical.  Before, it was just Gaoh in the center and everybody else up the sides…_

…But since Gaoh is struggling with Kurita, they’ve moved to back him up!  Which means the sides are much more vulnerable!

_We can use our own weapon this time; our legs!_

Sena tore up the left side with the ball ( _the voice was right, very vulnerable_ ), but there was Marco-kun, and he was _gonna Screw Bite the ball away_ -

_Then throw the damn thing!  For fucks’ sake, you’re the quarterback!_

Sena’s toss was so sloppy, it was practically a fluke that Monta caught it ( _shut up, Monta can catch anything as long as it’s in his general vicinity_ ), but a success was a success and the team all praised him on his incredibly unpredictable, messy, confusing, weird pass ( _we sure that’s praise?_ ).

Well, whatever.  Sena knew his passes were terrible; little control, strange rotation, no range.  But he wasn’t Hiruma-san, and he didn’t have Hiruma-san’s intelligence or experience.  His only choice was to use the tools he had to his advantage. 

_Yoichi chose us for our agility.  Let’s show him what we can do with it._

Deimon scored a touchdown to finish the first half and Sena never even got sacked once by anybody! _As if they could catch us._

Kurita-san nearly broke the brunet’s neck with that hug though. 

As the team huddled around the bench for halftime, the words hung unspoken in the air.  _We won’t visit Hiruma-san.  He’s resting and he’d be upset if we wasted our energy worrying about him._

The second play began in the same fashion that the first ended.  Kurita-san and Gaoh were in a stalemate, Sena knocked the ball out of the Hakushuu runner’s hands, and when Marco-kun picked it up he was gang-tackled by Komusubi-kun, Monta, Taki, Sena, and Kuroki-kun.  For the first time, Deimon had stopped Hakushuu’s as-of-yet-undefeated North-South game. 

That’s when the trouble started. 

_If I didn’t know better, I’d think Maruko was getting upset that we were only losing by eighteen points._

Hakushuu put a kick in the goal posts, widening the gap to 21 points, and Marco-kun started marking Sena _very_ tightly.  There was an aggravated gleam in his eyes that reminded Sena of the way some of his childhood bullies would look at him when he didn’t immediately do what they wanted.  His feints didn’t work on Marco-kun and ( _hold your shit together_ ) now Kisaragi was back to interfere with Monta ( _stop losing it_ ) because Sena was a terrible quarterback ( _calm down!_ ) and _Sena couldn’t do this-_

“ _Kekeke! Fucking shrimp!  What are you idiots doing, straighten up.  You look like you’re about to shit yourself in the middle of the field!_ ”

It was a knee jerk reaction on Sena’s part to shriek a denial before he even recognized the voice. 

_Told you to calm down; our hero from Hell has returned._

But that’s impossible, he was- Hiruma-san was- Sena turned to see him, could only believe that the blond was back if he saw it for himself.  His eyes didn’t disappoint.

_Our Yoichi._


	35. to MVP

He could hear them out there.  His mind was hazy with pain, making it hard to understand the announcer’s yelling, especially whenever Anezaki was trying to say something to him. 

_Sena took over as quarterback.  There was never any doubt about that._

The blond hated being benched like this.  His place was _out there,_ with his team, with _Sena._   Anezaki told him that Hakushuu scored. 

_Sena may struggle a little in the beginning, but he’d get it together._

Hiruma had dozed off for a little bit and woke up a shortly after half time.  His head was much clearer now.  Clear enough that he could see the worry on the fucking manager’s face as she stared at the door leading back to the field. 

_Sena was the quarterback… against Gaoh and Maruko._

Oh yeah, he was getting up now. 

Anezaki was not happy with decision, and told him so.  Hiruma understood that she was only looking out for him, but that wasn’t going to stop him from going.  So he called on the bet they made all that time ago, and asked her the one question he knew she answer incorrectly to ensure her obedience.  It didn’t make her any happier, but she honored her promise and taped his arm up tight enough that it wouldn’t completely fall apart. 

With that done, he grabbed the ketchup out of the fucking fat ass’ bag and decorated himself for a proper Hiruma Yoichi entrance.

The team was a mix of ecstatic and horrified to see him back on the field, and he took great pains to ensure that nobody saw anything to indicate that he wasn't 100% fine.

Musashi saw right through him.

Sena did as well after a moment.

Well, none of that mattered because there was only a 21-point difference ( _ha! Irony_ ) and everybody was still okay.  After all, if Gaoh had broken any other players, the Christmas Bowl dream goes up in flames.

( _Hiruma tried to ignore the part of his mind that kept flashing back to his nightmares that featured Gaoh standing over broken, red-jerseyed bodies._ )

Everything was fine though because, as Juumonji pointed out while Hiruma was off taking a nap, Deimon was busting its collective ass to hold itself together.  For the most part they were succeeding.  Now it was time for Hiruma's big comeback play.  _Time for the funny quiz fucking eyelashes!  What will Hiruma do during the next play?_

The answer?  Absolutely nothing.

Hiruma had returned to pull Deimon out of a pinch, therefore Deimon was going to completely ignore Hiruma and continue using Sena.  Since Maruko was busy watching the blond, he was in no position to stop the kid, and as such Sena scored a touchdown.  The gap shrunk to fifteen points.  Musashi shrunk it to fourteen, but only after Hiruma handed the job of setting the ball a kick off to Sena.

After that, Hiruma did everything he could to keep Maruko guessing as to the state of his arms.  He took part in defense, he blitzed, he kept his insane grin permanently plastered to his face. His arm sent bolts of agony all throughout the rest of his body, but he refused to let up, to slow down.  He had to make sure Maruko didn't realize how much of a weak point he really was.

Maruko ( _the conniving little slime ball_ ) called his bluff with Hakushuu's punt kick.

The ball flew pretty much right into Hiruma's arms, but there was no way he could catch it.  The fucking monkey covered for him, but the cat was out of the bag.  There was only one thing he could do now: throw a long pass.

He had maybe one pass left in him before his arm died completely, and it was the only way to keep Hakushuu from allocating all of their defense to block Sena's runs.  First, he had to rile the crowd up a bit.

_The look on the fucking manager's face when he sent her the signs, fucking priceless!_

Anezaki whispered to Suzuna ( _same fucking face!_ ) and the little cheerleader turned to the audience and screamed " _Long Pass!_ "

The crowd picked it up almost immediately, because if there was one thing Deimon fans knew it was that when something becomes impossible to do is when Deimon does it.  The majority of Hakushuu were ready to call this as another bluff.  After all, there was no way somebody could throw a long pass with a broken arm, right?

Gaoh said wrong.

It was aggravating, but Gaoh knew Hiruma Yoichi was the kind of monster who could, who would throw a long pass with a busted arm.  Since Gaoh said it, Kisaragi believed it and moved to continue marking Monta.  Monta said bring it.

Taking the snap by itself nearly brought Hiruma to his knees.  As it stood, the injury threw him off just enough to deviate the ball's intended path.  Monta didn't care and moved to catch it anyway.

The blond was dimly aware that the monkey caught the ball, shook off Kisaragi, and achieved a first down, but he was more than a little preoccupied with keeping the grin on his face as his right arm finally went kaput and the pain threatened to drag him under.  He was brought back to himself when Sena, lining up for the next play, gently and subtly squeezed the finger of the blond's left hand.  Hiruma was grateful for the comfort, but more so for the kid taking the ball and scoring a touchdown.

With Musashi's bonus kick, Deimon was only one touchdown behind.

Kisaragi got a little hysterical.  Maruko seemed a little desperate.

Knowing Maruko's philosophy about strength being absolute, Hiruma figured that the Hakushuu quarterback would take their offense as an opportunity to run Hiruma over and make sure he wouldn't come back this time.  That was fine; there was nothing wrong with that kind of simple strategy.

_Except that in can be used against you as much as for you. Kekeke!_

Sure enough, Maruko came racing toward Hiruma, ball in his arms, crazed look in his eyes.  Hiruma welcomed him.  _From behind the fucking fat ass!_

The blond could see the realization dawn in Maruko's eyes when it hit him that this was a taste of his own medicine.  _This is what you made all your opponents deal with._

There was a moment when it seemed like Maruko wouldn't be getting back up and Himuro yelled for another stretcher to be brought out, but Gaoh told her to put it away.  Maruko was stronger than that and she knew it.  And he seemed to be, for a moment.  He stood up.  And when he wavered, well, Hiruma was standing right there for him to lean against.  The blond was abruptly reminded of when he found Habashira after the Zokuto vs Kyoshin game.  Except Maruko wasn't asking _how are we different._

He was saying _please tell me we are the same._

In the same situation, roles reversed, would Hiruma do everything Maruko had done?  Would Hiruma sacrifice his morality, his reputation, _other players_ , for the ultimate victory?

_Of fucking course he would._

The two quarterbacks shuffled off to their respective benches.  There was five minutes left in the game, the two teams were tied ( _in the all the hubbub around Maruko, no one had noticed Sena grab the ball and score until Musashi needed to kick_ ), and the real battle started now.

Hakushuu started it by getting a first down.  They had returned to their original, highly effective strategy the North-South game.  If Kurita had his hands full with Gaoh, then he wasn't smacking Maruko into the dirt.  That could be fixed, and in the next play it was.

Unfortunately, when Kurita went to blitz Maruko in the play after that, Gaoh all but said _excuse me, I'm over here_ and reached out to flatten the fat ass completely.  Hakushuu scored a touchdown.  With their bonus kick, the score was 42-35 for Hakushuu and there were only two minutes left.  It was Deimon's turn for offense and they _had a problem_.

Hiruma couldn't throw any more passes due to his arm, but Sena wasn't capable enough a control tower to properly combat Maruko.  Which option was the lesser of two evils?

Hiruma's injury or Sena's inexperience?

Somebody asked Kurita what he thought and he said it didn't matter because he'd protect both quarterbacks _.  Both quarterbacks...?_

_Well, if they could copy Seibu's Shotgun, why the fuck not this?_

Hiruma could practically hear the snarl that would be in Agon's throat if he were watching.  Deimon was going to use the Dragon Fly.  Traditionally, the Dragon Fly was used between two players that each other exceptionally well ( _like twins, for example_ ).  In fact, many would argue that Musashi might have been a better choice to match Hiruma in a Dragon Fly.

Musashi would have laughed at them and said that not only were Hiruma and Sena anything but traditional, they knew each other better than anybody ever did ( _and maybe ever will_ ).

And so the play began.  Hiruma couldn’t take the snap without aggravating his injury, so of course Hiruma took the snap and back passed it to Sena ( _left arm’s good for something_ ) when Hakushuu began to swarm him.  Sena grabbed the ball and ran a short ways to lure out some of the blockers.  One of those blockers happened to Kisaragi, leaving Monta open to catch Sena’s pass.  The next play had Hiruma faking a handoff to Sena who ran down the right side, leaving the left unguarded for Hiruma to earn a first down. 

The next play was when Hiruma realized something.  He hadn’t seen Demon at all this whole game.

Sena was running with the ball like normal, Gaoh managed to get around Kurita to attack from the right and Maruko came up to steal the ball from the left.  The blond knew that Demon would turn right to face Gaoh where Sena might just hit the dirt where he was.  Seeing the chibi’s feet shift toward Gaoh, Hiruma waited to see his shoulders realign to become Demon’s shoulders.

They weren’t realigning. 

Sena took a brutal tackle that actually knocked him several feet to the side even as he still held the ball, but it was still _Sena_.  Hiruma got a little hung up on this revelation and half tuned out the ensuing conversation about the ‘real’ Eyeshield 21 ( _still kinda hurts to think about him now that he’s sort of gone_ ).  For a heart-stopping moment the blond wondered if Sena and Demon had phased together in the middle of the match and he’d missed it, or worse, it had happened when Hiruma had been taken out of the game _and he didn’t get to say goodbye-_

The injured player took a breath to calm himself.  If Sena absorbed the other side of his personality, he’d have been acting differently to accommodate the emotions he now had access to.  Hiruma wouldn’t have missed that, so clearly they were still separate. 

He pulled himself together just in time to hear Sena ask to try something to defeat Maruko.

There were 18 seconds left on the clock and it was Deimon’s offense.  After hearing the kid’s idea, the blond said _absolutely_ and tossed the Dragon Fly out the window.  This was going to be a power match in more ways than one.  Sena took the ball from Hiruma’s handoff, ran up the left, swerved to run up the right, and-

_Oh, there’s Demon._

It was Sena’s idea to plow right through Maruko in a battle of strength, but it was Demon who did the plowing.  He knocked the fucking eyelashes over and the used his body to propel himself forward just enough to put the ball in the end zone. 

Time had run out, so the last play would be Deimon’s try-for-point, win or lose.  Like with Shinryuuji, Deimon was only one point behind so a kick would send them into overtime while a two point conversion would win it for them.  _Unlike_ Shinryuuji, there’s no way overtime was even half an option, what with Hiruma’s arm. 

Kurita wanted to battle Gaoh one last time, on a truly even field, so Juumonji volunteered to take the snap ( _how far we’ve come from the threats over Sena’s well-being on the Death March_ ).  The play was set up, Hiruma took the snap, went to hand it off- _wait a minute_. 

Even if the blond hadn’t noticed the slightly incorrect placement of the kid’s arms that would have resulted in disaster, the tears in his eyes would have alerted the quarterback. 

_Of course.  Between the tackle from Gaoh and colliding with Maruko, poor kid’s arms are probably completely numb._

Hiruma pulled the ball away just in time for Demon’s arms to tighten around himself and rush forward to use the Devil Bat Dive as a feint.  Hiruma himself ran with the ball straight to where the fucking fat ass and Gaoh were duking it out.

For a single, miserable, heartbeat Gaoh had the upper hand. 

Then Kurita took it back and knocked Gaoh clean into the dirt. 

Hiruma jumped through and landed in the end zone.  The ref’s hands went up and Deimon got the two point conversion and they won and _they were going to the Christmas Bowl._

They were also the champions of the Kantou tournament. 

A great cheer had gone up from the audience and fair number of Devil Bats had started to cry as teams lined up for the closing ceremonies.  After giving the Kantou Cup to Deimon, there were the individual awards to be given away, such as Most Valuable Lineman which Kurita and Gaoh tied for, and Most Valuable Back which Monta took home. 

And the Kantou MVP award that was earned by Sena. _Sena, who promptly dropped the trophy because he still can’t feel his arms._

Well, he did a good job today, so the blond gave him a little verbal prompt to help recover himself.  Of course, Demon popped out midway and took it to another level, becoming the first MVP ever to declare that his team will defeat Teikoku Gakuen. 

_You said it, now you have to do it!_

And with everything said and done, Hiruma had a party to organize for Deimon, family and friends. 

 _But first he had to find Demon and figure out where he’d_ been _the whole damn game._


	36. to Field Trip At Teikoku Gakuen!

As it turns out, Demon found him.  He had just finished calling the parents and giving them all a time, place, and dress code when the door to his office in the club room opened.  The kid had gotten showered and changed back into his school uniform, and carried the jacket over his bag which he put down just inside the now shut door.  The blond recognized that the rage persona had something to say by the way he wouldn’t make eye contact, so he waited. 

“ _Do you remember when I told you that the Original had found the door that separated us, but didn’t know how to open it?_ ” Hiruma did remember.  “ _Well, during the match, when you took that hit and had to carted off,_ ” the small brunet’s fingers clenched and he finally looked up. 

“ _He opened it._ ”

Hiruma asked how long it stayed open.  “ _Just for the game, it’s shut again now.  But he knows who I am now, Yoichi, knows_ what _I am._ ”  The first year circled around Hiruma’s desk to lean against his left shoulder.  “ _He’s terrified Yoichi.  Of me, of himself…_ ” He tilted his head to look up into his captain’s eyes. “ _Help him, Yoichi, please._ ”

The blond agreed and gave the rage persona a kiss to seal the deal.  Said rage persona snorted, crawled into Hiruma’s lap and said he was going to sleep.  Original Sena would wake up in a few minutes. Sure enough, after a few minutes the kid’s breathing changed.  He was very still as he opened his eyes, gaze flicking back and forth as if to ensure he was where he thought he was.  When the small brunet finally made eye contact, Hiruma could see the fear in his eyes and it made his chest hurt.  This kid could willingly run headlong against monsters like Shin, Agon, and Gaoh, but he was stopped cold by the thought that his body moved around without his control.  The blond tightened his arm around Sena’s shoulders and pulled him in a little closer. 

He settled down some and apologized for falling asleep on him, what they were talking again?  Hiruma nuzzled his nose into brown hair and figured he could wait to confront the chibi about his fears until after he had reaffirmed himself at a little bit.  So he gave a vague answer of the ‘the game’ and let himself leisurely snuggle the boy in his lap.  Sena snuggled back, shifting so that they were nose to nose.  The blond’s lips quirked up as he planted a little kiss on the kid.  The kid smiled back and returned the kisses even as he started talking.

“ _So I was thinking,_ ” Kiss. “ _Not many players return to the field with fractures,_ ” Kiss.  What was his point? Kiss.  “ _What you did was brave,_ ” Kiss. “ _And that deserves a reward._ ” Kiss.  Oh, yeah?  Kiss.  What kind of reward? Kiss.  “ _Well,_ ” And here mischief sparkled in Sena’s eyes even as his face turned red. “ _How about a blowjob from the Kantou MVP?_ ”

Hiruma’s smirk became a full-blown grin.  _That would be one Hell of a reward._

So Sena did this thing where he just _slid_ down Hiruma’s whole body, so that he was on his knees in front of the blond’s chair.  The kid was blushing up a storm, but he was still smiling and his hands didn’t waver as they reached to undo the second year’s pants. The blond was pleased to note that the painkillers he was on did nothing to dampen his erection. Sena leaned in to lick a stripe up the underside ( _goddamn little tease_ ), kiss the head, and then _swallowed_. 

Hiruma jerked a little bit at the suddenness, and struggled not to thrust up and choke the boy.  His left hand wound into brunet hair, tugging and stroking, as his torso curled forward.  Air hissed out between his teeth as that hot little mouth pulled back to encircle the head and _sucked_.  His hands had also come into play, and fast became slick with his own drool, one moving down to fondle Hiruma’s balls _and if he didn’t cut that out quick the blond was gonna lose it-_

Sena released the dick in his mouth with an obscene _pop_ and a lick to the slit.  “ _You losing it is kinda the point._ ”

And with that he went right back to work.  Hiruma was approaching his end _embarrassingly_ fast, shifting his legs around to try and steady himself, when his foot bumped against something that made the kid shiver.  The blond blinked. 

_Yeah, his foot was between the kid’s legs, but…_

Hiruma gave another, experimental nudge with his foot, causing the kid to whimper and his grip around the blond’s balls to tighten deliciously.  Said blond grinned.

_Well, whaddya know? The kid gets hard just from sucking._

Sena seemed to double his efforts in retaliation and Hiruma warned him that he needed to get off now, or get a mouthful of jizz.  The brunet took him that much deeper in reply.  _If that’s what he wants._ The blond slowly ground his foot down on the boy’s clothed erection and the vibrations from the resulting squeal were what finally drove him over the edge.

The second year was pleasantly surprised that Sena not only milked him, but drank it all down too.  It stroked something primal in Hiruma’s gut to watch his underclassman do it. 

As the blond caught his breath, he passed the kid still on his knees a glass of water from his desk.  The pair had wound down some when Hiruma realized there was still a hard-on under his foot.  Another smirk lazily crawled across his lips. 

The smaller body jerked as it was abruptly reminded of the pressure between its legs.  Sena quickly set the glass down and tried to remove Hiruma’s foot.  The blond would not be stopped.

“ _Hirum- ah! Wait, I don’t- nng – I didn’t start this- guh – because I wanted you to-_ ” Hiruma reached down and put a finger to those protesting lips, still red and puffy from the cock recently between them.  This was his reward, wasn’t it?  So he should be allowed to do as he pleased.  Sena blushed again but nodded.  Good, because, being short an arm, he was going to need a little help. 

He told the kid to stand, undo the buttons on his pants and shirt, before tugging the kid forward by the waistband of his boxers.  The second year then turned the kid around and pulled the pants and boxers down, just a little, not all the way, and sat the kid backwards in his lap so that Sena’s back was pressed against Hiruma’s chest.  The boy was locked in by the cast on Hiruma’s right arm around his waist.  The blond took the kid’s left arm and stretched it to grasp the back of the blond’s neck before reaching around to take the kid’s right wrist, which he left to hover just over the boy’s erection.  Hiruma settled his own hand on the boy’s naked hip, rubbing soothing circles into the skin as he leaned into Sena’s ear and whispered _can you touch yourself for me?_

The brunet’s whole body shuddered and his and obeyed, shaking slightly as he pulled his cock out from his pants and wrapped his fingers around it.  The blond instructed him to move, slowly, _slowly,_ as he licked and nipped where the brunet’s shoulder met his neck. 

“ _So beautiful, so obedient, you’re such a good boy, so good, take a look, open your eyes and look, see what I can do for you, how I can make you feel…_ ”

Sena’s eyes reluctantly blinked open from where they had screwed shut and looked down to watch his hand move according to Hiruma’s whispers, as if independent of his own will.  He also watched Hiruma’s hand come around and tickle the inside of his quivering thighs where his pants had slipped down even further.  The long fingers trailed lightly along his heated flesh, up his thighs, over his belly, along his ribs, pausing to circle and toy with a nipple before dancing all the way to his mouth and slipping past his lips.  He whimpered around those fingers as they pulled and played with his tongue.  His hips gave stuttering little thrusts and every movement highlighted the growing bulge against his ass, exacerbating his arousal.  Hiruma had just pulled those fingers from his mouth, drool dripping down his chin, when the blond dropped something of a bomb on him. 

“ _Huh, I forgot that camera was there._ ”

Sena’s head bolted up to find the little blinking red light above the door and instinctively tried to close his legs.  Hiruma wouldn’t let him.

“ _No, no, relax now, it’s only a security camera.  Feeds into my laptop, that’s it.  Nobody else gets to see you like this,_ ” The hand holding Sena’s legs apart crept down, slickened fingers prodding at his entrance.  “ _Nobody else gets to see you flush and squirm,_ ” The first finger broke through, causing Sena to arch and whine.  “ _Nobody else gets to see you play with your dick while you fuck yourself on my fingers,_ ” Two more fingers entered him, stretching him, deliciously rough.  “ _Nobody else gets to see the face you make when you’re all spread out like a buffet for me to devour,_ ” There was a sharp nip on his ear that made him tear his eyes from the camera and turn to the blond.  “ _Nobody, but me._ ”

The combination of the possessive, almost dangerous look in Hiruma’s eyes, those long fingers viciously penetrating him, his own hand on his dick, and the _knowing_ that the second year was going to make him watch this video later made Sena seal their lips together just as the coil in his stomach tightened to the point of explo-

Quick as a snake, the blond’s fingers pulled from Sena’s ass and squeezed around the base of his cock, denying him.

The brunet broke their lip lock with a pained wail and tearful, pleading eyes.  The blond merely smirked and shook his head because they _were nowhere near done._ Instead, he made the boy stand up ( _took a few tries_ ) and lean his weight on his hands on the desk.  His pants fell a little lower so that they were tangled around his knees and his shirt was halfway off his shoulders.  Even from the back, he looked well and truly debauched.  Hiruma pulled himself a little further out of his pants and used some skin lotion from the shelves behind him to slick himself up.  He then stood, lined himself up behind Sena, and murmured to his young lover to breathe as he wrapped his left arm around the slim waist in front of him.  In the next breath, he sheathed himself up to the hilt. 

Sena threw his head back and keened.  Right away, Hiruma set up a rough, almost punishing pace, causing tremors to run up Sena’s spine and out to the tips of his fingers and toes.  His mouth hung open, drool falling over his chin, letting out a myriad of whines and wails.  His arms could barely hold him up under the onslaught and the blond didn’t give him a moment to catch his breath.  The relentless pounding had him caving to rest his face on the desk, eyes falling shut until Hiruma shifted his angle and started hitting _that spot_ that blew Sena’s eyes wide open again.  Suddenly he was flailing and crying, he couldn’t _take_ this, his body was going to implode, he was going to lose _his mind-_

_“Hiruma-san, please let me cum, please, Hiruma-san I can’t, I can’t Yoichi, let me, please, Hiruma-san, Hiruma-san, YoichiYoichiYoichi-”_

Hiruma nipped him on the ear again and that was all it took for the smaller teen’s spine to go rigid.  Sena let out one last piercing cry as he shot ropes of sticky white fluid all over the desk, his ass tightening impossibly around Hiruma’s cock.  The blond himself got two, three more thrusts in before he too was releasing, painting Sena’s insides white. 

Sena seemed ready to collapse into his own mess, so Hiruma pulled him backward so that they both fell into the chair.  The blond felt sweaty and gross, but his limbs were jelly and the kid could barely keep his head up, so moving to the shower would have to wait for a little while.  Instead, he wheeled the chair over to a cabinet and pulled out a blanket to drape over the pair of them ( _what?  The AC was fucked, it got cold in here_ ).  The brunet shucked off his pants completely so that he could comfortably arrange himself sideways on Hiruma’s lap, nose tucked up under the blond’s jaw. 

Once they were all tucked in, the second year planted a little kiss on the brunet’s temple and asked quietly if Sena would tell him now what was bothering him, and if it had anything to do with that oh-so-charming side of the kid that called the blond Yoichi.  Hiruma could feel the anxiety slowly seep into Sena’s muscles which was not allowed, because _easy, easy, it’s safe here, everything’s okay._ Hiruma knew a thing or two about what was going on, he just needed to know what blanks Sena needed him to fill in.  The brunet was quiet for a moment, clinging even tighter to his captain and hiding his face in said Captain’s collar bone before he finally started to speak. 

“ _I’ve been noticing that I’m missing things.  Like, I’ll know that I was there, and I’ll know what I was doing at the time, but I won’t remember actually_ doing _it.  If I think about it, it probably started on the Death March._ ” Hiruma tightened his hold on his underclassman as the smaller body started to shake. “ _And then, during the match, when Gaoh-san- When you were- Well, you know what I mean.  I was watching you get taken away, and then there was someone_ else _with me,_ ” Sena paused and shifted to look Hiruma in the eyes.  “ _He was so_ angry _, Hiruma-san, so very angry.  I think,_ ” The brunet’s too-big eyes started to tear up.  “ _I think he was going to hurt Gaoh-san or Marco-kun._ ”

Seeing how close the kid was to a panic attack, the blond kissed his forehead and whispered into his skin for him to take a deep breath and calm down.  After he settled a little bit, Hiruma asked him if he had ever noticed how he never seems to get mad about anything.  The boy blinked and thought about it, before nodding. He agreed that, yeah, that was kinda weird how every time he started to get really upset about something, the anger just… went away.  _But what did that have to do with this?_

Hiruma nuzzled into Sena’s hair to keep him calm ( _and because he smelled good_ ) and explained that the other person, the other ‘Sena’ was the place that all the anger went.  He was the manifestation of everything that ever pissed the kid off, all wrapped up in a bow.  That being said, it was still _Sena’s_ anger; just because the other ‘Sena’ _wanted_ to tear somebody’s head off doesn’t mean that he _would_ if the original Sena didn’t want him to. The brunet’s eyebrows furrowed and he asked if they could name the other Sena something else because he was getting confused.

Hiruma shrugged.  That was fine, he could be Demon Sena.  The small boy giggled.

He sobered up pretty quickly though, asking if Demon would always be there, sitting in the back of his head waiting to be let loose.  The blond said, _no, probably not,_ because the more aware of him Sena became the more they would feed into and off of each other until they just phased back together like two drops of water in close proximity.  The kid asked how Hiruma knew all of this. 

The answer was simple: because he’d seen Sena do it before.

Those caramel coloured eyes widened and he looked away to sort through his memories.  “ _It was after the Bando game, wasn’t it?_ ” Hiruma nodded, and whaddya know?  Already halfway healed before he even knew there was a problem.  The boy smiled and kissed his captain in thanks, shifting in his lap to reach and _oh shit, how did he not notice his dick was still up the kid’s ass, no wait, stop moving-_

The smile on the goddamn little shit’s face had turned more than a little sly as he very deliberately ground down on his upperclassman and _he was so asking for it._

The blond smirked and wheeled them back over to the desk and all but dumped the little tease backwards onto it.  Legs spread, semen leaking out of his ass, blushing from his ears to his chest, and that _damn smile;_ Hiruma surveyed the lithe little body before him and figured he never seen anything look more like sin itself. 

The blond lifted one of those legs to sit up on his shoulder nipped a series of red marks into the skin just above the ankle, prompting a plethora of mewls.  The shit-eating grin on his face only widened.  _The brat wanted a third round?  He’d get one. YA-HA!_

By the time he’d finished, Sena was a quivering pile of human mush and Hiruma felt like the cat that ate the cream _and_ the canary.  The blond wiped the worst of the mess off with tissues he kept in his desk drawer and wrapped the kid up in the blanket so that he wouldn’t get cold while he regained feeling in his limbs.  He quickly showered and changed himself before returning with the kid’s spare uniform in tow.  The boy accepted the uniform with a sleepy, sated smile and plodded off to the showers ( _just the slightest little limp in his step.  Kekeke…_ ).

As they separated to head home, Sena drew his captain in for one last kiss, soft, slow, and deep.  When they part the boy whispered against his lips _thank you, Hiruma-san,_ and was off.  The blond just shook his head and laughed. 

Later that evening, when he caught the brunet sneaking into the oxygen capsule he just vacated, Demon grinned and winked at him.  It would seem that the two personalities came to some kind of agreement. 

_Just in time for the fucking monkey and the damn cheerleader to kidnap him off to Osaka._

Hiruma deadpanned at the text he received from Sena saying the three of them had run off to Teikoku to find the Eyeshield 21 of the West and he was so sorry but _can you please make sure the teachers excuse us from school tomorrow?_

The blond sighed through his nose, but couldn’t stop his lips from curling up at the corners. _Damn needy brat…_


	37. to All Star Spirits

The fucking manager wanted him to clip out all the articles from _Amefuto Monthly_ featuring Honjou Taka at Teikoku, so that Monta didn’t see them.  The monkey was more than likely to meet the renowned receiver on his own, but Hiruma performed the task anyway to increase dexterity in his left hand ( _and to stop her nagging_ ).  Otherwise, his time was spent jerry-rigging his oxygen capsule onto a Segway ( _of course he’s been wheeling around everywhere in this thing, fucking manager, why the surprise?_ ) and organizing the Personal Coaches From Hell. 

_Akaba was the best option to teach Taki, but damn were they gonna get out of hand so fast._

But a deal was a deal and they all signed the contract.  He paired them up based on position, either offense or defense, and pitted his Devil Bats against opponents of equal or greater strength.  Teikoku wasn’t just going to play against Deimon. 

The Teikoku Alexanders were going to battle with all the combined strength of the entire Kantou region.

Unfortunately, the fucking monkey’s head was in goddamn _space_ and Ikkyuu was not amused.  Hiruma had foreseen this problem the moment Monta had returned from Osaka with a veritable storm cloud hanging over him.  Sena must have tried speaking to him, because one day they both turned up covered in bruises and bandages, not talking to each other.  The running back blamed his injuries on Cereberus, but the blond caught him bribing the mutt with food later. 

The more time went on, the worse it got until Ikkyuu had to be restrained from kicking the monkey’s teeth in.  Hiruma got a text from the monkey asking to be removed from the team and was seriously considering doing him the honour of leaving his capsule to _shoot his stupid head back on straight._ Sena persuaded him not to, saying he had a plan to fix this. 

“ _He always brought Honjou-san’s glove to games as a way of asking for blessings from his God of Catching.  But now, that God’s child is his enemy.  He can no longer use the talisman of Honjou-san’s glove, so I’m going to give him a new talisman._ ”  The blond raised an eyebrow and asked what Sena could give that could compare to ‘God’s talisman’.  Sena smiled a little deviously.  “ _I like to think of them as the Devil’s talismans._ ”  He pulled a box of football gloves out of his locker.  “ _Instead of the opponent he doesn’t want to fight, how about all the ones he’s already beaten?_ ” Sure enough, Hiruma recognized gloves belonging to receivers like Sakuraba and Tetsuma, and cornerbacks like Ikkyuu and Kisaragi, and the set still wasn’t complete.  “ _I still need to visit Kamaguruma-san from Taiyou and I even contacted Watt-san from the American team, his glove is being sent in the mail._ ”

The quarterback laughed and said if this didn’t snap the monkey out of it, nothing would.  He _didn’t_ point out that his height advantage over the shrimp meant he could clearly see the ‘hidden’ scraps of the gloves Hiruma gave him, neatly placed on a little hand-sewn cushion on the back of the shelf. 

As expected, in a few days Monta was apologizing for ‘getting MAX sidetracked’ and broke Hiruma’s cellphone that received the text ( _death by machine gun_ ). 

The only question was _where the fuck was Agon?_   The blond confronted Unsui on his brother’s blatant violation of the contract ( _what do you mean how did I get him to sign it?_ ) and received the relatively surprising response that he had been practicing almost every day since Shinryuuji’s defeat at Deimon’s hands.  _Huh._

Even though training was progressing smoothly, Sena was still obviously nervous.  His anxiety about facing off against the ‘genuine’ Eyeshield 21 was so clear on his face, it was practically written in permanent marker.  Hiruma caught him alone at the train station one morning, a week before the match, to call him on it.  Now, the blond was not one to mince words, certainly not just to be nice.  When prompted, he told Sena straight out there was an absolute 0% chance that the brunet would defeat Yamato Takeru.  The kid didn’t seem surprised. 

Until Hiruma also said that every plan he made, every scheme he plotted, would center around Sena beating Yamato man-to-man.  He walked away to let that sink in. 

The day before the game, it snowed.  The idea of a white Christmas Bowl seemed to motivate everybody just that little bit extra, and not just the players either.  A group of Teikoku lackeys had created a giant snowman in the shape of their Alexander mascot at the front gate of the Tokyo Dome.  And though Hiruma would never tell anyone, he caught Habashira on a few of his cameras as the linebacker called up a bunch of his buddies and crafted a white Devil Bat in defiance. 

It certainly set the mood for the Battle of the East and the West. 

Upon entrance to the arena, the two opponents greeted each other.  Hiruma casually glanced over Teikoku’s starting lineup and picked out a player he knew to be at least 60% idiot and promptly put on a show involving a fictitiously bedridden younger sister that he promised to win the Christmas Bowl for, regardless of the state of his wounded arm.  The stares of his fellow Devil Bats all read _who the heck is this character!?_

The minor plot failed however ( _as expected_ ), because just about everybody else on Teikoku could _use_ their brains and called him on his bullshit.  And yet, in a way the plot _did_ succeed because Yamato was more idiot that he let on and volunteered to play the entire game with his right arm sealed to match Hiruma’s.  _Well, whatever helps you sleep at night..._

It was time for Teikoku’s kickoff, and Deimon’s very first trick play of the match.  Everyone thought Deimon was going to immediately demonstrate the strength of Kantou.  _So of course they ran away! Kekeke…_

_Let the games begin.  YA-HA!_


	38. to Finale

_Time for the funny quiz! Who has the ball?_

They needed to confuse the Alexanders right from the beginning, pull out of every trick they had and _not stop._   As such, the entire team pulled into the Hornet’s Nest and handed off the ball to the least noticeable person on the team. 

Ishimaru made it about four steps before they realized he held the ball, and even with Riku’s Rodeo Drive and the all the combined blocking techniques of Ootawara, Kakei, and Mizumachi, the fucking shadowless only made it to the 19 yard line before Yamato forced him out of bounds. 

Well whatever, it was Deimon’s offence and time for some fun.  Hiruma spewed lies at a few of the stupider Devil Bats to rile them up and lined up in his regular spot as the quarterback.  Cast and all. 

If the giant grin on his face didn’t _scream_ perfectly healed arm, then there really were some serious idiots on the Teikoku team. 

Honjou Taka was no such idiot. 

That being said, even though he lined up against Monta, even though he looked the monkey dead in the eyes, Hiruma would bet any money ( _and he had a_ lot _of money_ ) that Taka couldn’t tell you a thing about what Monta looked like.  He _looked,_ but he didn’t _see._   And when he jumped for the ball, the Teikoku receiver didn’t even bother looking.  To Taka, Monta was about as significant as a leaf to a tornado. 

Taka handed off the ball to Yamato upon landing.  Yamato, one arm behind his back, decided he was going to run all the way to the goal line, leading the safeties to fall into blocking position.  Sena took off after him. 

_Would have caught him too, if it wasn’t for all the snow on the field._

Barely 30 seconds in, and Teikoku took first points. 

Hiruma was a little worried about the kids starting to lose hope early, but he needn’t have bothered.  Sena immediately pointed out that Yamato wasn’t as fast as Shin, let alone Sena himself, and this was swiftly followed up by Mr. Eyeshield 21 of the West in the flesh, come to ruffle some feathers. 

_Absolute supremacy, my pale, bony ass.  Deimon will smash Yamato’s Absolute Prediction to pieces by not only getting on the board, but winning.  Douche._

Teikoku used an onside kick to get on offense and Hiruma was incredibly grateful for the forethought to lie about Karin’s gender ( _the idiots on this team are too many_ ).  Karin and Sena greeted each other in a ridiculously similar fashion and as the parallels between the two players lined up in Hiruma’s mind, he wondered if maybe she too had a separate personality.  Not that it mattered a whole lot one way or the other, especially in the face of her beautiful pass to Taka, her easy dodging of Kurita, and her handing off the ball to Yamato. 

Yamato who had a Devil Bat Ghost ( _Alexander Ghost?  Yeah, Alexander Ghost_ ) of his own.  Unfortunately, his version had multiple illusions.  It wasn’t long before it came down to Yamato and Sena once again. 

Or rather, Yamato and _Demon._

And Demon did _not_ take Yamato’s shit, did not fall for his feints, did not hold back in his tackle.  Except that said tackle was not enough to knock Yamato over.  Instead, he _smiled_ , completely pleased with his opponent’s level of skill.  Yamato was smugly satisfied that Sena was strong enough to be fun to destroy.  As if all of the kid’s blood, sweat, and tears were for Yamato’s personal benefit.  Then he demonstrated the Caesar’s Charge with his arm _still_ behind his back and shook Sena off.  It was like he was laughing at them. 

He had a clear path to the goal.  Teikoku started celebrating.  The announcer declared it Yamato’s victory. 

Demon said _no._

Between one moment and the next, Demon stood up from where he had been dropped and all but _teleported_ to where Yamato was about to cross the goal line to tug on the Alexander’s jersey.  Yamato, in his shock, instinctively stiff-armed the kid and continued on to score.  But Demon noticed, and Yamato noticed, and the Devil Bats all noticed.  Hiruma grinned. 

_Yamato would need both arms to fight_ this _opponent._

And he knew it too, by the way he promised to not hold back like he had up to now.  Of course, in keeping his promise, Yamato proceeded to make life _very_ difficult for the Devil Bats.  Even Sena stepped up to the challenge by spontaneously bursting into his own multi-illusion Devil Bat Ghost ( _where was he hiding_ that _skill?_ ), the star Alexander all but _smooshed_ the tiny running back once again into the dirt.  With a fucking bear hug. 

There was some desperation on the kid’s face when he stood back up again, but he shook it off a bit by snagging Monta by the arm and dragging him over for the Christ Cross.  _Which they promptly fucked up._   Hiruma held back a sigh as he screamed for the guys to pick up the fumbled ball; he didn’t really expect anything different considering the pair never really managed to pull off the manoeuvre in practice. 

In the ensuing chaos, Heracles manipulated a hole into the line through which Achilles slipped through and snatched up the ball.  Fortunately, the three brothers triple-teamed him resulting in the ball bouncing right into Hiruma’s palms.  Then something interesting happened. 

The fucking monkey was yelling about a long pass ( _because that’s just what he does_ ), Taka turned away to run up the field, and Monta moved back toward Hiruma.  For a split second, time froze and all the noise fell away because it was such a beautiful, spontaneous pass that Hiruma’s arm came up instinctively.  Of course, because the ball had changed possession, the blond wasn’t allowed to throw the pass.  Yamato tackled him and Deimon lost two yards, but a window of opportunity had opened.  Judging by Teikoku calling its first timeout in the whole tournament, Taka had noticed it too.

In the single moment where Taka turned, he stopped being aware of what Hiruma was doing with the ball.  In that moment, Taka would not have been able to intercept the blond’s pass. 

Teikoku ended its timeout with one of Yamato’s absolute predictions:

_42.  Four, t_ _wo. Shi, ni.  Death.  The Alexanders would defeat the Devil Bats 42-0._

Hiruma threw Hail Mary passes like crazy.  Again and again, Monta fell short of the catch. Both Yamato and Taka scored touchdowns, Taka’s being an exact replica of what it seemed Deimon was trying to achieve.  During Deimon’s last offence of the first half, Monta pushed Taka to his utmost limit and _still_ lost.  In his defence, Taka made a jump that most wouldn’t even dream of attempting and got a standing ovation for it.  In the third quarter, Yamato dragged Sena right into the end zone, for yet another touchdown.  The score was 35-0 at the beginning of the fourth quarter and there were nine minutes and 55 seconds left on the clock.  It was Komusubi that shifted the momentum. 

At first, it seemed the ‘Sideline Magician’, a cocky womanizer named Tenma, had slipped through the mini fatty’s block and scored yet another touchdown.  However, as the small player pointed out, there was snow all over the edge of the field which covered the sidelines.  In a rare display of solidarity, the three brothers loudly supported their fellow lineman’s theory, to the point where Musashi needed to shut them up or risk pissing off the ref. 

Thankfully, the ref ruled in Deimon’s favour.  The team picked up some energy, and the crowd went wild.  It had been the first time all game that Deimon had stopped _anything_ the Alexanders threw at them.  There was only one downside. 

Sena still hadn’t beaten Yamato.  Not even a one man Devil Bat Dive had gotten past that guy and Hiruma simply couldn’t afford to wait for him to do it anymore. 

The blond sighed to himself, and shook off those thoughts.  Instead, he rallied the boys with some swearing and yelling, and dared them all to go the rest of the game without a huddle.  Kurita, the humongous sap, stuck his hand in the middle of what would be Deimon’s very last huddle, live or die, because he’s _so stinking emotional about every little-_

Everybody stuck their hands in the middle and looked at the blond.  _Fuck it._

The team gave one last cry ( _“We will kill them! YA-HA!”_ ) and tore out onto the field.  From there on, Hiruma trusted even the idiots to remember the code that they drilled into their heads. 

“ _Poseidon, 424!_ ”

Sweep.

“ _Sphinx, 138!_ ”

Cutting middle pass.

“ _Dinosaurs, 921!_ ”

The one we’ve all been waiting for…

Monta started running, pushing Taka as far back as he could.  You could practically see him counting the steps until that perfect moment that Taka turned around.  Of course, Taka saw through that and simply _refused to turn._

_And so he falls right into our trap. Kekeke…_

Monta made to turn back up the field to Hiruma, Taka darted forward, only for Monta to continue running _down_ the field, effectively throwing Taka off his rhythm and putting him two steps behind the fucking monkey. 

When Hiruma threw his pass, it was no Hail Mary.  But let’s be honest, that should have been obvious.  After all, how many times has it been said? Demons don’t ask gods for favours, and this Hail Devil Laser was going to take Monta right to the end zone with his Devil Backfire. 

That’s not to say Deimon had forgotten that ridiculous catch Taka had made earlier.  On the contrary, Hiruma had sent a hero to prevent such a disaster from happening a second time.  Sena slammed into Taka and Monta scored the very first points against the Alexanders in the entire tournament. 

It got better.  With nothing but Kurita’s strength, Deimon _shoved_ her way into a two-point conversion.  With exactly nine minutes left ( _all that shit happened in 55 seconds? Holy fuck_ ), the score was 35-8 and Yamato wanted to know why they didn’t use this plan earlier in the match.  You know, when they still had time?  What had he been waiting for?

Hiruma laughed it off, and tried not to notice Sena looking at them. 

Given their lead, it made sense that the Alexanders would use time wasting plays; such as a run through the center.  The blond piled all his players in the middle to head off such a play, and sent Kurita into the back to intercept Karin’s corresponding pass. 

Unfortunately, the fucking fat ass had _absolutely zero_ catching ability, causing him to fumble the ball and fall on his face.  The demonic quarterback sighed and started to get ready for Teikoku’s next down when something flashed out of the corner of his eye.   Until the ball hit the dirt, it was still in play.  The ball bounced off Kurita’s huge ass, but was snatched up before it touched the grass. 

Demon had run back to help Kurita at the last second and was now tearing up the field with a ball that was still live. 

Yamato noticed him too, and the Alexanders started to scramble.  Deimon’s players piled around Yamato to slow him down and inhibit his chasing Sena.  They didn’t last very long against the Eyeshield of the West, but they didn’t really need to.  Demon only needed a second’s head start to slip through Yamato’s fingers, and it wasn’t like anyone _else_ on the Alexanders could catch him.  The ref called a touchdown and Kurita atoned for his fuck up by once again shoving the ball over the line for a two point conversion. 

Naturally, Teikoku responded in kind to Deimon’s sudden seizure of points with consecutive passes to Taka and finally a run by Yamato to score.  If their try-for-point kick succeeded, they’d have their 42 point death score.  The fucking monkey declared that he would _catch_ the kicked ball, like that was a _thing that was possible_ , but Hiruma was just desperate enough to let him try.  That desperation paid off when Monta’s glove grazed the ball just enough to knock it off course and save the Devil Bats that one point. 

In the remaining five minutes and 45 seconds, Deimon needed to make up 25 points.  At the very least, that’d take three touchdowns and a field goal.  Their long passing game was shot with Taka marking the monkey, which meant they were depending pretty heavily on Sena’s runs.  Runs that were being repeatedly cut down by one Yamato Takeru. 

Hiruma knew that Yamato would figure out that the blond had wasted a lot of time waiting for Sena to win man-to-man, he just wished Yamato didn’t feel the need to point it out _in front of the kid in question_.  Yeah, maybe Hiruma had waited longer than he should’ve, and yeah, that may have been a mistake on his part, but that’s _faith_ goddammit.  The blond had never had faith before, in anything, and he liked the feeling too much to regret it, win or lose.  He’d never regret having faith in his team, and he’d _never_ regret having faith in Sena. 

He turned away from said running back so that those thoughts wouldn’t be written all over his face, but in doing so missed the resolve that settled into those too-big eyes.  If Hiruma had been looking, he’d have seen an expression of such steadfast determination, the likes of which he hadn’t seen since before the Bando game.  For a moment, Sena would have reminded Hiruma of the long passed Eyeshield. 

As it was, the blond could only marvel at the sudden force Sena threw into his runs.  He even turned an insane suggestion made by Taki into a viable option ( _never would have thought to try ducking under Yamato’s arm_ ), only to be blocked at every turn.  In one case, all Yamato did was _fall_ on Sena.  Deimon was about to run out of downs, so Hiruma called for a punt kick, unaware of the familiar voice that niggled in the back of Sena’s mind. 

_Hey… Let’s do something impossible._

At the last second before play began, Monta asked the Devil Bats to put their trust in Sena just once more.  It was the riskiest gamble they could make in this moment, the one least likely to pay off, and Hiruma _must_ have been going soft because he went with it.  He handed the ball off to Sena and _prayed._

The two Eyeshields were charging straight for each other and the shorty in red was making no moves in any direction around Mr. 3 Dimensional Block ( _what, was the plan to try to phase_ through _Yamato now_ ), and Hiruma wanted to look away from the impending impact-

_Waaaaaaiiiiiit.  Wait a fucking minute.  What was that?  The kid was about to crushed, again, but now he’s not there, somebody explain this bullshit-_

The blond took a deep breath because what happened wasn’t really complicated: Sena waited until just before Yamato tackled him and then stepped _backward,_ giving the illusion of time travel.  Yamato tackled air and Sena got passed him.

_Sena got passed him._

Hiruma could have kissed him right then and there. 

Instead, he let out a laugh that was full of joy and pride and _oh my fucking god_ that nearly drowned out the referee’s declaration of a touchdown _.  The kid invented a fucking 4 th Dimensional Run._  Another two-point conversion and the score was 41-24.  It was Deimon’s kickoff. 

Hiruma’s faith had been quiet up to now, understated so that it couldn’t be used against him.  But now he was running high on the multitude of options that just opened up to him ( _runs, passes, power, all the cards are in play_ ), and decided fuck quiet faith.   For the first time in the five years he’d known Musashi, Hiruma told the shitty old man that he believed in him.  He said it out loud _so you’d better fucking reward that faith dammit, and kick it with everything you’ve got!_

And he did. 

If the ball had gone into the end zone and set the line back to twenty yards, it would have been acceptable on the grounds that the 20 yard line was a significant improvement to the 50 yard line that Yamato kept dragging it back to.  As it was, the ball stopped an inch in front the end zone and that flashy moron Tenma picked it up. 

_Only to immediately drop it when Sena jumped on him. Kekeke…_

Taki and Achilles also jumped into the fray, causing the ball to bounce further into the end zone.  Hiruma wasn’t really worried about what would happen next; as far as Teikoku went, Tenma and Achilles were no real threat.  Either Sena or Taki would snatch up the ball to score, or the ball would roll out the back end of the end zone and Deimon would get a safety.  Neither option was particularly preferable over the other-

_Where did Yamato think he was going?_

Ok, scratch that, there was a pretty big threat here. Sena was still tangled up with Tenma and Achilles, so clearly a touchdown was out.  Luckily, Taki trusted Hiruma’s judgment enough to not question his orders to forget about the ball and just stall Yamato.  The idiot’s block didn’t last, but it got Deimon her safety.  It was only two points, but it put the Devil Bats back on offence and gave them back the momentum. 

Hiruma took that momentum and more or less manipulated his way down the field, earning first downs and gaining yards.  Of course, Yamato decided he didn’t appreciate this, and demonstrated his indignation by conquering Sena’s previously undefeated 4th Dimensional Run.  And then, on the off chance that he hadn’t made his point clear enough, he chose to blitz Hiruma himself. 

For just a moment, before that black and gold jersey filled his vision, Hiruma saw where all the Alexanders were.  He found his window just as Yamato put hands on him.  His receiver hadn’t been there yet so he waited for a second, and was halfway to the dirt when he finally threw blind.  But Hiruma knew that guy would surely catch it. 

_Yukimitsu._

The weakest Devil Bat scored a touchdown with his very first catch of the game. 

With yet another two-point conversion, the gap had closed to 41-34 and there were still four minutes left on the clock.  From here on out, the game was just as much a battle against time as it was against Teikoku, and of course they weren’t fooling around.  They openly admitted to giving up their passing game to focus purely on Yamato’s undefeated Caesar’s Charge runs. 

And Yamato was goddamned _unstoppable._

Hiruma could use Deimon’s three timeouts to prevent Teikoku from wasting time with their huddles, but after that the Devil Bats were in trouble.  And damn if Teikoku didn’t play it safe with a kick at the 20 yard line, bumping the point gap from seven points up to ten when there was less than a minute left in play.  Then they huddled. 

Deimon would have all of eight seconds to score ten points. 

Hiruma closed his eyes. 

In his mind, he went all the way back to the Spring Tournament and watched Sena outrun Shin for the very first time.  He watched this skinny kid strike fear into the likes of Habashira and obliterate Munakata.  He replayed the half pint’s conquering of Kakei and slaughter of Riku.  He relived the pipsqueak’s annihilation of Akaba and decimation of Agon.  He even heard the screams of a phantom announcer that told him that this _shitty little brat_ had the balls to take his place against the sheer destructive force that was Gaoh. 

In his mind, he saw a TV in a classroom that was covered all in signatures.

This final game was bigger than Hiruma.  It was even bigger than the original Maoh Trio.  Losing was simply not an option. 

So he opened his eyes and grinned, mental wheels spinning, trying to find a strategy that would work.  It was clear as the nose on his face that nobody believed him, but nor did they choose to call his bluff so there was that at least. 

It was time to let the chibis give the Christ Cross another try.  Only this time, they’d put the Devil’s spin on it.

_And once again, it’s time for the funny quiz! Who has the ball?_

The answer was, of course, Sena, which everybody saw when the kid slipped in a pile a snow.  Little did these idiots know that Sena slipping was a decoy to draw the defense in around him.  Sena back passed to Hiruma and then kept the defense busy when Hiruma made a run for it.  Now the Alexanders thought they were so smart because, instead of chasing Hiruma, they went and marked all of Deimon’s receivers…

_…leaving Sena completely unguarded!_

The kid tore down the field to the goal line, only to be blocked at the last second by, you guessed it, Yamato fucking Takeru.  Hiruma had been watching Sena’s footwork evolve from the very beginning, but not even he could predict what the shorty did next. 

_Combining the 4 th Dimensional Run and the Devil Bat Ghost to create a motherfucking _backward Devil Bat Ghost _?!  Where does he pull this shit from?_

Hiruma was too busy reveling in the touchdown to give it much thought at the time, but later he would think back to this moment and realize what it should have indicated.  When the kid did impossible things like this, it was usually Demon in charge.  This time… it hadn’t been. 

For Sena, it had happened between one footstep and the next. 

_Well, shit._

He recognized the voice, the one Hiruma-san called Demon-Sena.

_I was having a lot of fun too.  But I guess when the game’s done, it’s done._

He sounded sort of resigned.  On one hand, Sena was relieved that the Demon didn’t sound angry like he did during the Hakushuu match.  On the other, the sadness in his voice made something inside Sena ache in a way he hadn’t felt since after the Bando match- oh. 

_Yeah.  You go ahead and finish the match.  I don’t have a lot of time left, and Yoichi’d get pissed off if I didn’t say adios._

With that, the quiet constant presence in the back of his mind just sort of faded away, and reality slammed back into the kid, practically tripping him into the end zone.  Hiruma took one look at the kid and knew _something_ happened inside his head, but couldn’t allow him to break down yet.  So he put the brunet behind Kurita for a Devil Bat Dive two-point conversion to keep him distracted. 

Three seconds left for two points. 

Deimon’s kickoff, Monta vs. Taka, Sena distracting Yamato, confusion, then:

_“Deimon’s ball!”_

One second left for two points.

_Half the field to cover… what to do…_

Sena walked out onto the field, looked down at the goal posts and said something impossible.

_“That’s… yeah, that’s about 60 yards, isn’t it?”_

Everybody looked at Musashi.  Musashi whom had never scored from farther than 55 yards away.  The shitty old man reminded him, as if he forgot.  So Hiruma reminded _him_ of something.  Of when Musashi left the team, of how much Kurita threw things and screamed and kicked, even though they both knew that Kurita would never throw things or scream or kick.  He reminded the shitty old man that he had a debt to pay and the Devil of Deimon _never_ let debts go unpaid. 

If puny, runty Sena could overthrow the Emporer Yamato, then Musashi could fucking well do _this_. 

The Maoh Trio started this; they were going to _finish it_. 

They just had to hold off Yamato.

Kurita hiked the ball, Hiruma set it, - _fuck, there’s Yamato –_ Musashi swung his leg back, _\- get him out of the way you little shits -_ and made contact – _knock him the fuck down!_

Sena jumped on Yamato’s shoulder, pulling his hand down just in time for the ball to sail over their heads.  There was a moment where the entire stadium held its breath as the ball flew through the air and just… barely… made it. 

With the ref’s whistle, Hiruma’s heart started beating again. 

All of their Kantou rivals stormed onto the field, started flinging players into the air, being the rowdy insane catastrophe they are when all together.  Sena collapsed into tears.

He was pulled out of it for a short while, distracted by the festivities, but the blond knew that something happened during that backward Ghost and it needed to be dealt with sooner rather than later. 

The opportunity came up pretty quickly.  The trophy was awarded, the stadium emptied, everyone went to shower, change, and maybe nap before heading home.  Hiruma found the shorty in the stands, overlooking the field and sat down next to him.  Sena inhaled deeply, shivered, and then Hiruma was looking at the calmest Demon he’d ever seen. 

_“I, uh… I had to duck out of the game early.  Sorry about that,”_ he turned his too big, too shiny eyes on his captain.  “ _I didn’t want to run out of time before I got to say something._ ”  Hiruma swallowed, but didn’t interrupt.  His face must have looked weird though because Demon suddenly looked annoyed.  “ _I’m not gonna say goodbye, or I’ll miss you, or any of that mushy crap, god fucking damn.  I’m not_ going _anywhere remember?  I just wanted…_ ” Demon started to fidget, so uncharacteristically nervous that Hiruma had a terrifying split second thought that he’d already phased back into Sena, before he started speaking again. “ _I just wanted to thank you._ ” Those two-big eyes stared determinedly into Hiruma’s own.  “ _I wanted to thank you, because I don’t think we would have survived much longer without you getting involved in our life.  If high school had carried on the same way middle and elementary school had, the Original would have either taken too many of our Dad’s sleeping pills, or I would have killed someone._ ”  Demon reached out and wrapped his hand around Hiruma’s neck, bringing him in until their foreheads touched.  “ _Thank you, Yoichi, for saving us from ourselves._ ”

Demon’s eyes closed and he slumped forward so that Hiruma’s nose ended up in his hair and the blond’s long arms wrapped around him and pulled him in tight.  There was a burn in the conniving quarterback’s throat and an itch in his eyes that trailed down his cheeks into fluffy brown locks and he needed to get that stuttering shake in his shoulders _under control, preferably before Sena woke up and saw-_

A small pair of arms curled up under his shoulders, which only seemed to make them shake harder.  “ _I know he’s not really gone, but it feels like he is.  So, it’s okay, if, if we stay like this, for a while.  It’s okay… Hiruma-san._ ”

Neither of them moved until it was time to leave. 

Later, on the train back to Tokyo, Hiruma would realize that after a year of being Sena’s support beam, security blanket, motivation, and mentor, it was _Sena_ who comforted _Hiruma_ through the final stages of the kid’s own mental illness.   He could only laugh.  In the end, it seemed Hiruma had been the demon that was tamed. 

The team all went their separate ways after arriving at the train station.  As the brunet walked away to meet up with his parents, Hiruma watched him.  He recognized the set of Eyeshield’s shoulders, the strength of Demon’s steps, and when the kid turned back to him, he saw Sena’s smile.  

Hiruma smiled back. 


End file.
